Jfc a couple of days ago this post was at 400. Well, I guess let me label this post:
Autism Explains Nearly Fucking Everything About Papyrus As A Person: An Essay
And Iâm not just talking about the big stuff. Iâm talking about some subtler details too.
(warning because this is gonna be long as hell)
To start, let me address arguably the most visible trait: Difficulty regulating emotion.
Without much explanation, this is easy to notice in Papyrus, so Iâll only go over it briefly. When heâs excited, such as when he sees Frisk for the first time, he gets really, REALLY hyped. When heâs annoyed or frustrated (like with the Annoying Dogâs various shenanigans), he yells or gets huffy. When he gets angry (such as when Sans asks him to look at the lamp), he gets really angry to the point where he starts stomping his foot.
Which leads me into my next point, and arguably just as easy to notice as the first thing: Stimming.
Almost no other character expresses their emotions through stimming like Papyrus does. Undyne, arguably the most impulsive character (especially when angry), expresses her anger by yelling. Her fighting the protagonist is less a result of her own anger and more a result of her duty. The only other times she gets physical are when sheâs doing it for fun, like the multitude of points at which she rough houses with Papyrus.
Meanwhile, Papyrus? He stomps his foot on the ground when he gets mad. Furthermore, him rattling his bones in the middle of the battle could be a form of excited stimming.
The most noticeable example of stimming takes the form of echolalia, though.
His catchphrase, âNyeh heh hehâ? Itâs not just the way he laughs. Itâs something he repeats because he likes it.
Often related to stimming (although it doesnât seem to be in Papyrusâs case) is sensory problems, such as sensory overload or issues with certain sensory input.
This one seems less obvious, but once you start looking for it you notice it EVERYWHERE.
Many of his gripes with Hotland could even be attributed to sensory-based issues. While heâs there, he complains about steam vents, lasers, conveyor belts, and various combinations of those elements. Not much could be said about the steam vents as far as sensory issues go (though arguments could be made), lasers and conveyor belts could easily be sources of sensory problems: lasers are bright and intense, and the movement from conveyor belts could easily cause problems.
Where he seems to have the most problems is with food. There are actually very few foods heâs willing to eat that we know of. Look at how he talks about Grillbyâs.
He mentions repeatedly disliking Grillbyâs because all the food is covered in grease. Grease is often a source of discomfort for many autistic people.
Additionally, on the Undertale Q&A Tumblr, the response to the first question âPapyrus, whatâs your favorite food?â is:
When faced with uncertainty regarding a fact about himself, Papyrusâs first instinct is to ask Sans. And how does Sans, walking encyclopedia of all things Papyrus who could tell you just about anything there could be to know about him, respond to this question?
In Undertale, we hear of many charactersâ favorite foods, or characters just liking certain foods. With Papyrus, on the contrary, we only hear him complaining about food. Even with spaghetti, despite making it very frequently, Papyrus says himself that heâs never eaten it before.
What do we know of him actually eating? In the Q&A Tumblr, Toriel says she doesnât know his favorite food, but usually packs him âa cheese sandwich, an apple, and some milk,â and later on, Flowey reveals his favorite food is âthat oatmeal with the dinosaur eggsâ. We donât get any confirmation about anything else heâs willing to eat, or with any sort of frequency.
Often related to sensory issues is what often happens when it reaches a tipping point: autism shutdown.
The only place I know of where this can be seen is the phone calls in that one room in Waterfall with multiple echo flowers repeating things at each other (though itâs more known for having multiple slates on the walls).
If you call after befriending Undyne, Undyne will be the only one on the phone. Sheâll briefly explain how the echo flowers being right next to each other results in them repeating their words back and forth to each other, distorting and overlapping until it becomes white noise. If you call again, sheâll get angry and tell you to âstop calling from that creepy roomâ.
If you call before befriending Undyne, however, and you get dialogue from Papyrus⌠briefly.
And if you try to call him again:
This feels less like him feeling creeped out and more like straight up distress. He doesnât stop to explain why he has to hang up, or say anything about the room after asking about the weird whispering sound. He only has one thing on his mind: retreating from the sound. And you canât get him to engage in conversation until you leave to another room.
Responding to certain (intense) sensory inputs with distress, trying to escape in any way possible, and needing isolation (even from a friend he really cares about) bears an uncanny resemblance to shutdown.
Many autistic people have special interests, whether itâs multiple or only one, and Papyrus definitely fits the bill for this.
Arguments could be made for his desire to capture a human and join the royal guard being special interest-related. I personally wouldnât say itâs a special interest and more as a desire for recognition and to prove heâs a capable adult. (Iâll touch on this later, donât worry).
Where else could Papyrus have a special interest, if not in capturing a human or joining the royal guard? Puzzles, of course!
Call him in any room where thereâs a puzzle, and heâs gonna talk about the puzzles that are present. Whether heâs joyously explaining a puzzle, talking about the history behind a puzzle, complaining about Asgore wanting to put safety restrictions on the puzzles, or ranting angrily about Hotlandâs puzzles, heâs talking about the puzzles whenever he can.
Hell, thatâs not all we see of his special interest in puzzles. Look on his bookshelf, and heâs got a bunch of books on advanced puzzles, and Papyrus says himself that his favorite book is âAdvanced Puzzle Solving for Critical Mindsâ.
And it doesnât even stop there, either. More information from the Undertale Q&A shows that he even likes his sandwiches cut into mazes.
One often overlooked aspect of his character is how Papyrus thinks very visually, something common in a lot of autistic people.
When faced with a problem, Papyrusâs instinct is to approach the problem visually, whether itâs by looking at his surroundings to see if thereâs a visible solution or making a diagram to help him visualize whatâs going on.
When he realizes the protagonist is still in his room even after the date/hangout, his solution is to draw them a diagram of a door. Additionally, if you call him during the second steam vent puzzle in Hotland (the one with the flipping arrows), he says this before asking you to draw a picture (never mind how he can even see things through the receiver, maybe modern monster phones are just like that, maybe itâs just Papyrus):
The way he says this implies that being able to visualize the puzzle is absolutely critical for him to understand it at all.
Thereâs a hell of a lot more autism traits that Papyrus exhibits, but the last one Iâm gonna go in-depth with is his trouble interpreting social cues/figurative speech/sarcasm, taking things literally, etc. (but I will have a short list of further autism traits Iâve noticed afterward).
Papyrusâs struggles with social situations can be seen multiple times throughout the game. In the date/hangout, there are various instances where he misinterprets the protagonistâs actions in one way or another, such as assuming their distaste in his spaghetti is approval, assuming that their clothes mean that they wanted to date/hang out from the beginning, and assuming that their kindness indicates a romantic interest or obsession with him, depending on whether you flirted or not.
Additionally, there are multiple phone calls with both Undyne and Papyrus in which Undyneâs lack of awareness of Papyrusâs problems with detecting social cues results in her accidentally confusing Papyrus. I donât remember the context exactly, but after one phone call in Hotland in which Undyne gets angry at Papyrus for something (yet fails to explicitly state her anger), if you call again the dialogue is:
Furthermore, while Undyne makes a joke about how ducks suck the guts out of bread with its fangs, Papyrus gets confused and asks if bread actually has guts. Undyne, not realizing that Papyrus is asking a genuine question and not joking along, gives a joking answer, only to realize her mistake after Papyrus takes her answer literally.
Those are the major ones, but hereâs a brief list of other traits that Iâve noticed Papyrus display:
Inflection that doesnât reflect feelings/Seeming blunt, rude, or uninterested without meaning to (âYou should take a hike. Itâs good for your bones!â I canât actually find the correct phrasing but thatâs the general gist)
Often invents words and expressions to describe things (âBoondoggleâ; âSlightly bonetrousledâ; etc.)
Volume/inflection control issues (He speaks in all-caps and uses exclamation points more frequently than everyone else)
Other speech quirks in general (âWowieâ, âYou didnât do a violence!!!â, âYou should learn a privacyâ, etc.)
Participating in a restricted range of activities (Preparing puzzles, making spaghetti, etc.)
Finding it hard to make friends (âOnce I reach a few dozen followers, Iâll finally have double digits!â; talks about having no friends frequently and his desire to have friends)
Liking to plan things carefully before doing them (The whole Snowdin Forest puzzle segment, honestly, especially how he explains the puzzles)
Forgetting names (Calling Napstablook âSpooky Bloo Blooâ and âNapper Hogâ and Flowey âFloweryâ)
Interests in things that most would consider childish (In addition to advanced puzzle books, he also has various childrenâs books on his bookshelves, plus he has a race car bed, action figures, and a pirate flagâall things that most people his age would think are childish or immature)
Sleep problems/insomnia (He says he never sleeps because heâs always too busy, and he says this as though sleeping is an inconvenience as opposed to someone who doesnât sleep from being overworked)
So, how does this relate to the initial post?
Well, seeing how various characters treat Papyrus (most noticeably Undyne since she arguably interacts with him the most, aside from maybe Sans), it would make sense that treating him as more âinnocentâ would be a result of him being autistic.
Itâs not just how the characters treat him, either. A large part of the fandom (at least half, probably even more than that) belittles him and treats him like a child, or at least treats him as more innocent than he is.
(I donât like saying this out loud, but god, I really, really hate how Papyrus gets treated by most of the fandom.)
At best, this is portraying him as not showing anger at things heâd normally get angry about.
At worst, this is directly contradicting his canon character with preconceived notions about his character as a result of treating him like a child or âinnocent bean uwuâ.
This is most obvious by the notion that he doesnât understand death (he actually does, itâs just that people often lie to him about it to spare his feelings) or the notion that heâs oblivious to the topic of sexuality (he actually says multiple things suggesting the opposite is true: âI wish I had eight legs⌠so I could wear four pairs of hot pants!â, âI heard you got to meet Mettaton!! Heâs my favorite sexy rectangle,â âI just want to have beautiful, bishonen eyesâŚâ).
(like aside from my aroace!Paps headcanon this is legit the only problem I have with the Papyton ship, just have Sans and Paps be in character and Iâd be fine with it)
The most blatantly Iâve seen people belittle Papyrus is the argument that the brother Sans is referring to in this line from the Undertale tumblr:
âbesides, itâs rude to talk about people that are listening, right? not everyone is as tough as my brother.â
couldnât possibly be Papyrus because, and I quote, âWe all know Papyrus isnât tough.â
Papyrus is tough. Undyne herself says that the reason she doesnât let Papyrus into the royal guard isnât that heâs too weak. She herself says that Papyrus is âpretty freaking toughâ. Considering Undyne is captain of the royal guard, personally trained by fucking ASGORE, we can be fairly certain that UNDYNE finding anyone a challenging opponent means that they must be pretty tough in battle.
But Papyrus is also tough in other ways. Even when he faces off with the protagonist in a genocide route, he sticks to his principles of kindness despite acknowledging that theyâre doing bad things and their life is going down a dangerous path. As Iâve said in another post, him trying to help you isnât something to attribute to naivety on Papyrusâs part, but dickishness on yours if you kill him.
Heck, if you abort a genocide route by sparing Papyrus, he even says âTO BE HONEST, I WAS A LITTLE AFRAIDâŚâ
Itâs not that heâs too naive or innocent to get his hands dirty. Itâs that he believes that thereâs a kind, nonviolent solution to things, even when faced with someone willing to kill him and potentially others, and he believes that everyone can change if they want to and try hard enough.
(Donât pretend that that isnât EXACTLY what the protagonist does in a True Pacifist Route).
Papyrus isnât innocent or childish. Papyrus isnât weak, either.
Papyrus is strong, kind, and a mature adult.
And Papyrus is autistic, too.
