Behold: Things!

So. I see a lot of people talk about how the flippant and humorous way it’s written makes them think this isn’t Gaster. To get the Gaster stuff out of the way, my stance is that everyone has their own preferred idea of how they think Gaster acts and whether or not he could have a sense of humor, but we really have yet to learn a lot about him in canon. I don’t love us trying to make rules about what is and isn’t “in character” for him when we really haven’t met properly and have very little dialogue to go off of. I get a lot of people are basing their ideas of him being serious off Entry 17 and the popular assumption that the intro voice is Gaster. I think that’s fair and very understandable, but even still it’s only an extremely limited peek at what the guy is like. Point is, maybe he does have a silly sense of humor and maybe he doesn’t. I don’t want to entirely dismiss the idea that Gaster wrote this based on “it’s too silly, Gaster is serious!”. But I also think that the idea that because the speaker is a mysterious voice with meta knowledge of Deltarune that it MUST be Gaster is also a bit shaky.

Anyway.

Is it just me or does the bizarre roundabout way of phrasing things in the letter perfectly fall in line with how Papyrus speaks?

One of my favorite notes in the Undertale Legends of Localization book (HIGHLY recommend by the way, a really fascinating read) was this:

While yes, it’s important to bear in mind that this was the quote of a localizer and not Toby directly, I think it still rings very true for Papyrus’s character. Don’t really think I need a laundry list of examples for this point, right? Papyrus’s fun and unique way of speaking is such a memorable part of his character that you encounter in all routes.

Which is why it’s so interesting to me that this mystery writer seems to have a highly similar way of phrasing things in a unique and playful way.

The first one that really sticks out to me is the “I never forget someone I don’t remember.”

Really reminded me of the little bit you get after a post neutral run reset.

While not something I originally weighed in to my theory, it is worth noting that this bit between Papyrus and Sans occurs immediately after Papyrus has recognized Frisk after seeing them for this “first” time. This makes the mystery valentine writer’s preceding comment that they will know the forgotten person they are looking for immediately upon seeing them extra interesting.

This bit also stood out to me:

Because it also felt like very familiar phrasing. It took me a while to realize what it was making me think of.

Down to the quotations around a common phrase like it’s an alleged thing not a very common thing??? Like MAN.

While these were the only two parts I felt directly and strongly paralleled specific phrasing Papyrus has used before in canon, there were a few other things that caught my eye.

A faith in the power of love, and the power of belief.

(Yes, I realize the “even if you don’t think so” appears to negate the idea of Frisk’s beliefs being an important part of their ability to change, but I’d say Papyrus is still emphasizing that his beliefs are significant in this.)

Very strange that the writer doesn’t dismiss the idea that the person they have forgotten they wanted to help could be themself. How could you forget yourself? But then again…

And while not really the same degree of strength in a parallel, I just want to bring up that the letter writer remarks that the reader is odd yet reliable for responding out loud to a piece of written communication.

It is strange that the author seems to have still heard the reader’s out-loud reply to the letter. A weird instance where a mode of communication that has limits on what SHOULD be able to be perceived by the other person somehow has those limits broken and allows that person to comment on something they shouldn’t be able to perceive.

Kind of like if you were having a phone call with someone far away from you but they still seemed to somehow be able to know exactly what you were looking at and where you were. Where have we heard that before…?

Also come on. You can’t tell me “PUT ON YOUR COAT AND WASH YOUR FACE! OR, PUT ON YOUR FACE AND WASH YOUR COAT. NOT NECESSARILY IN THAT ORDER. OR, IN ANY ORDER AT ALL.” doesn’t sound like a Papyrus-ism.

I know some people may point out that Papyrus already has Valentines that are very explicitly from him in the newsletter, so it would be weird to have three that are and one that wasn’t. But I don’t think that necessarily should refute this idea. It could be possible the “signed” valentines are from Undertale’s Papyrus, and this one is from Deltarune’s Papyrus. Even if you subscribe to the idea that UT Papyrus IS DR Papyrus, this could simply be a letter sent from a different point in time.