So I Noticed This During My Final Pacifist Run...

Flowey’s trauma metaphor

(CONTENT WARNING: themes about trauma, unreality, emotional numbness and child death)

I said this would be an essay but it really isn’t, it’s just me rambling about Flowey. There is no structure here, it’s a mess, but I hope I at least make my point clear

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What do you think Tolkien's Dwarves' religion looks like?

like Terry Pratchett’s, but taken seriously.

Congratulations, you found the GRIDDY’S DOUGHNUTS Secret Menu! Order wisely.

A study of character designs between generations in Disney/Pixar’s Coco

As a world builder and character artist whose dream career is character design and animation, I am constantly observing very closely how Disney designs its characters in its animated films–especially characters that are supposed to be related, or who are supposed to represent a certain ethnic group, such as the Polynesians or Mexicans. And to see how much work the character designers put into Coco is truly heartwarming. What we get to observe on screen is true dedication to the craft, combined with a desire to honor Mexican culture by faithfully portraying them. Notable among their designs is the oft-celebrated Mestizo type, a blend of European and American Indian bloodlines that characterize most Mexicans today. Prior to the Mestizaje movement, purer Spanish bloodlines were desirable, with a goal to “water down” Indian bloodlines by marrying their women to Spanish men. Thus we see among Héctor’s generation a lot of very strong Spanish traits, making Héctor, who retains strong Amerindian features, stand out all the more, and contrasting him yet again to Ernesto, who was considered a paragon of manliness in his day. While Ernesto did live to see the Mestizaje movement begin, Héctor died beforehand. He unfortunately did not get to see his mixed heritage become celebrated to the point of being the preferred look for a “true” Mexican. But the result of the Mestizaje movement can be seen in his descendants, who all display common traits of Mestizos.

If you’re interested in studying body and facial types and their variation between bloodlines, I strongly suggest giving Cedarseed a visit. She’s a Lebanese artist who studies people and body types, and her comprehensive chart should be considered invaluable to character artists who want to portray a people or culture as accurately and respectfully as possible.

As for who’s who in the Rivera family tree, there’s a bit of controversy about that. During production, the name of Berto’s wife was Gloria (this name is listed on the digital dailies, during one of which she’s said to be Luisa’s sister). But the only officially published family tree available to us gives Berto’s wife’s name as Carmen, with Gloria being the name of his sister (that same book also refers to Berto’s wife as Gloria when quoting her lines in the film). This has led to some confusion as to which tia is Berto’s wife and which is his sister. I myself refer to Elena and Franco’s daughter as Gloria, in accordance with the family tree. The purpose of this image is to compare traits between Elena, Franco and their three children. Enrique looks more like Franco, while Berto looks more like Elena. Gloria is a pretty even blend of the two. Franco also gave his cowlick to at least two of his kids. Interesting to note is that the shape of Enrique’s face is definitely a throwback to Héctor. This supports a popular fanon idea that Miguel will end up looking quite a bit like Héctor when he grows up. I think Miguel will end up looking a lot like Enrique, but Héctor’s traits will also be quite pronounced, given how much Miguel takes after him in personality.

Jinx :  😠

Silco : you’re my daughter 🥺 , I’ll never forsake you

Jinx :  🥺

Okay, we all are sure that Pepa and Bruno drifted apart after her wedding day, but just imagine Bruno already feeling somewhat distant from his sister.

Like, he’s just started getting blamed for his visions. And he really needs to let all his strange emotions out, but his mom is off the table because she would HATE how he feels and lecture him about it. Julieta, though kind and loving, wouldn’t really understand. So that leaves Pepa.

But who is he to bring up a bad gift to Pepa? Who is Bruno to complain about his gift when he can just… turn it off. Pepa’s gift literally manifests clouds over her head and ruins days, crops, and clothing. Sure it’s still beneficial to the community, but he can tell that it makes Pepa stressed out.

And then after he tries to get her to calm down she blames him for making her gift act up. She claims that she hates him, and shuns him. Now the only person who could understand… is gone.

Their relationship is so tragic, and I love it.

This scene is so good I really love it so much, the blocking and shot composition is great, and tense and I love it.

The way Deckard subtly recoils in disgust

And Silco juuuuuust sliiiiiiightly turns to him and it's like... dude you said the wrong thing.

I LOVE THIS SHOT framing it through the blood-spattered, cracked glass? Amazing choice. And the body language is so good. Only Silco can feel predatory while standing perfectly still and unbothered.

"Power" Silco spits. I made a post earlier commenting on how Arcane uses spit, it's gross. And they do this with Silco a lot. He's icky, he makes your skin crawl. And it was a good choice, because Silco is charismatic and the grossness counterbalances that, it maintains this unsettled feeling about him. If you're starting to like SIlco it helps keep you ambivalent towards him, because ew.

And then yeah this shot is just super cool

The Enterprise’s menu!  From Lora Johnson’s Mr Scott’s Guide to the Enterprise (1987)

I love how Irving's always been kind to Helly even when he's suspicious of Helena and even when he's trying to drown Helena. The most obvious example of this in S2E4 is Irving saying he's so sorry for hurting Helly and making sure that she felt safe, that she had an anchor to cling to as she came back to life in the most disorienting way ever. Irving held her so tightly and protectively in his arms, whispering comfortingly to her and trying to warm her up, and I was all 🥺 the whole time.

But there are actually two other moments in S2E4 that I want to talk about! The first is the snow seal conversation. Irving is full of distrust by then, but he doesn't let that overtake him in the moment. He asks "Helly" again to tell him what she truly saw outside, but he does it in a way that shows that he isn't going to judge her no matter what her answer is and she's safe with him. If it really were Helly with him and she was keeping a secret out of shame, he wanted her to know there was nothing to be afraid of. She wouldn't lose his trust or respect.

The second moment is when he gets Helly back. Again, the most talked-about part of that scene is what I said in the first paragraph, but what I love the most about that moment is Irving brought Helly back to life because he loved her that much. Yes, it was to prove that the woman who was with them since MDR returned to work after the OTC incident was in fact not Helly as he suspected, but he specifically yelled at Milchick to bring back Helly. Not '"show them I'm right!", "prove me wrong," "do you really want to risk killing an Eagan?", or anything along those lines. He demanded Milchick resurrect Helly, back from the nonexistence she was banished to. And when Milchick did, Irving made good on his promise in the post-snow seal conversation: it would be okay. It won't change anything. Even after finding out who Helly was on the outside, his love and trust are unwavering and unconditional, something Helena probably never thought was possible after showing her "true" self because she's never had that from her blood family.

More Undertale thoughts:

Am I the only one who’s a bit confused when Sans is made out to be this great, chummy guy?

Out of all the main characters (except Mettaton I guess) he acts the least friendly towards you. Undyne tries to kill you at first, yeah, but she’s never seen a human before and she’s just trying to do what she’s been told. When she’s had a chance to hang out with you she turns right around and is more than happy to talk to you. Toriel takes care of you with no hesitation, because that’s just Toriel. Papyrus and Alphys quickly find out that you’re alright and are happy to chat and share their thoughts with you as well.

I can’t recall Sans ever doing anything like that. He helps you out in the beginning, but it mostly seems to be to make Papyrus happy and pull some stupid pranks on you. He only really talks to you twice - At Grillby’s and at the restaurant in the MTT Resort. Both times that seemed to me to be with the intention of getting some information out of you and figure out what kind of person you are. He asks you some questions, says what he wants to say and then he just leaves. He never really talks about himself other than to say things that are obvious or that the other characters will tell you as well. He’s lazy, puns are great, Papyrus is cool, yadda yadda. The other times you meet him he just “happens to be around” and maybe he’ll comment on something you did or say something funny, but he isn’t really helping or cheering you on.

All in all he doesn’t seem very interested in being your friend. It didn’t seem so weird to me on my first playthrough that he’d tell you he had the intention to kill you if it weren’t for Toriel, since I actually killed Toriel (didn’t catch on to the fact that you can spare her). But he says the same thing even if you haven’t hurt a single soul. That’s.. pretty uncalled for? Especially at that point in the game. If it was meant as a warning, he’s putting it out there way late. So I don’t know what to interpret it as, other than sheer spite.

And that brings me to the fact that I’m 100% sure Sans killed at least one of the other humans who fell into the Underground. Apart from the old characters (Toriel, Asgore, Gerson) he’s the only one with any real knowledge about humans. He’s certainly capable of killing a human. He’s following you, and again, he did outright tell you that he wouldn’t hesitate to kill you. Causally, like it was something he’d done before. How else could he sound so confident about it?

But if he did, if he really did help kill the other humans, nobody appears to know about it. So did he act on his own? And why? We know so incredibly little about Sans that everything just becomes guesswork, based on small hints and offhand comments.

I also fully support the theory that Sans used to be a scientist, because there are simply too many hints pointing in that direction for it not to be a thing. The -most- suspicious one is in the pacifist ending, where everyone is gathered before leaving the Underground. In one bit of dialogue, Alphys will make a pun before Sans can and then she laughs about how she knew he’d say that. To which Papyrus says that he didn’t know Alphys knew Sans and Sans just brushes it off with a “doesn’t everyone”. Papyrus! Papyrus who otherwise knows pretty much everything. Why is it a secret that they know each other? Was Sans also involved in Asgore’s shady science experiments? Did he also have a hand in researching Determination? Is that why he has some of the same powers as Flowey? Because really, that’s just what Sans is. A “Flowey Light” - Not quite aware or powerful enough to break out of the game world entirely, but enough to be able to mess around with things.

Sans is… complicated. I’m definitely not saying he’s malicious or unfriendly either, but he’s extremely reserved and when he watches you like a hawk throughout the entire game, I don’t exactly think it’s out of concern for your wellbeing. He might take a liking to Frisk in the end too, but never like any of the others do.

For his surprise value and importance to Undertale’s themes and his incredibly subtle writing I think Sans is the best character in the game, but also because he isn’t just a great, chummy guy. He does an admirable job of keeping his comic relief act together, but here and there the facade cracks and what’s underneath isn’t all that pretty. I kind of wish there had been shed a little more light on all the baggage he’s obviously dragging around, but then again, maybe it’s another strength to his character that we’ll probably never know. Let the little skeleguy keep his secrets I guess.