METTAMOUR

      Have you ever wished you could be a part of the world of glitz and glamour? Wearing every shade of pink on the spectrum and looking fabulous while doing it? Well that’s what the “glambot” subculture does. The name of Mettaton’s subculture, “Glambot” is a cross between the word “glamour” and “robot.” Mettaton is a robot from the game Undertale by Toby Fox. He is a robot that was built by Dr. Alphys, a monster scientist in the underground. But being glamorous isn’t the only goal of the glambot subculture. Bringing joy, happiness, and equality is a main component of their aspirations.

    Mettaton is a robot performer in the Underground world of Undertale. The monsters in the Underground only have one source of entertainment, and that is Mettaton, the Underground’s #1 Idol. He works incredibly hard to perform for them and bring the Underground as much excitement and drama as possible. In one scene, a lion is seen wearing a dress that Mettaton wore in one of his in-game performances. He tells the protagonist that Mettaton recognized him, and gave him the dress. This act of kindness just starts to demonstrate what kind of personality Mettaton had.

    And as it turns out, Mettaton wasn’t ALWAYS a robot. In fact, he was a ghost who had his body transferred into the body that Alphys built. As a ghost, Mettaton was “never really happy with his body.” However when Alphys granted this opportunity, he was able to be truly happy. For this reason, many transgender people rally around him and celebrate the experience described in the game, which was described much like gender dysphoria. The subculture of glambots is kind and giving, but is sure to look fabulous while doing it. They celebrate being happy in your own skin. Their political goal is to bring equality to all, and you can often see them frequenting equality rallies, dressed head to toe in bright pink heels and boas. Often, many of them dress up as Mettaton. They show their support of marginalized groups by parading as their favorite character. The glambots have protested at Congress by leaving rows and rows of hot pink heels on the steps of the Capitol Building. They held signs up that said “WE JUST WANTED A PLACE TO CHANGE INTO OUR HEELS” in solidarity with the transgender community when they had their rights to use their bathrooms of choice challenged. The photos were splashed all over the news, and the eye catching pink heels brought attention to their movement.

    Not all members of the glambot community are transgender or suffer from gender dysphoria or body dysmorphia. To be a glambot, you just have to support equality, have the desire to be glamourous in each and every endeavor, and to love Mettaton unconditionally. However there is definitely a level of competition within the glambot community. There is constantly a push for bigger and better costumes. The consistent distinctiveness of glambots is their outrageous Mettaton inspired outfits. Often times you can see them wearing hot pink boots, even when not at rallies or events. They often wear sparkly eyeshadow, usually hot pink in nature. A common hairstyle is long bangs over one side, dyed black, with pink undertones. Glambots can be as subtle as wearing all baby pinks or as obnoxious as wearing a full feather boa, heels, a full face of makeup, and even a Mettaton cosplay. They aren’t afraid to make a statement, and if you see a glambot, you’ll probably know that they’re a part of the subculture.

(Source: http://www.deviantart.com/art/Undertale-Mettaton-Neo-Cosplay-589574265)

    More lights, more drama, more hard work always means more respect in the community. If you spend more money on your cosplays, you will have more cultural capital.  Wearing these advanced costumes are almost like a status symbol. Most of the leaders in the community have been cosplaying Mettaton since the game’s release on September 15, 2015. Since the game’s release, many rallied around Mettaton as a beacon of hope, and to them, he was their hero. These cosplayers then realized that many of them had the same interests, and decided to expand the group to include other goals.

    There are a few symbols in the glambot community that are particularly important. Of course, Mettaton is the most important symbol in their community. They worship and look up to him. He is what they aspire to be and anyone who disses him is immediately shunned and ignored. You can expect ANY glambot to have his entire character analysis memorized, front and back. If you try to diss their “god,” you will certainly receive an earful from them. They recognize that he has flaws like any other character, but they’ll definitely explain to you exactly why that is necessary to his character. This is one symbol people should definitely avoid talking poorly about.

    The second symbol is glitter. Glambots love putting glitter on everything. Whether it’s their hat or in their hair, on their clothes or on their shoes. They’ll get spray glitter for their skin and even paint their nails with glitter. For glambots, glitter is a staple. Some of the most devout glambots have gone as far as to even add glitter to things like smoothies, parfaits milkshakes, and even cereal. (The shakes with glitter in them are fondly called “Starfaits,” named after an in-game item you can purchase at Mettaton’s Resort.) These fans usually have thousands of followers on Instagram, Twitter, and Tumblr. Social media presence is very important to Glambot subculture. Being able to get the Glambot message out to thousands of people is imperative to the encouraging more people to join. Even if it’s something as silly as posting a glittery smoothie, it catches the attention of people. And even if people are originally drawn in by their outrageous stunts, it might draw people in to learn about their cause.

    The third symbol is hearts. This may seem obvious, but you can usually find Glambots with at least one heart somewhere on their clothing. This is to obviously symbolize love, but it is also a symbol of solidarity. If you see someone with a small pink heart pin, you can be sure that they are a safe person to talk to and help get you out of a bad situation. Glambots encourage all of their followers to wear a heart somewhere in some form or fashion. Glambot fan sites often sell pins or buttons that people can wear, even if you aren’t specifically a Glambot.

    Creating music in the Glambot scene is HUGE because Mettaton is a musical performer! His in-game theme, “Death By Glamour” has been remixed so many times within the subculture. Many cross this theme over with electro-swing songs, electronica, dubstep, and even metal. It is a common idea to try to come up with the best remix of the song. However, most of the time, the subculture is seen rallying around electro-swing music, which is a mix of electronic beats and swing/jazz type music. Some of the top songs that people listen to are “Lone Digger” by Caravan Palace, “Looking like This” by Lyre le Temps, and Jamie Berry and Octavia Rose’s, “Delight.” The subculture is also fond of the Studio Killers, enjoying songs like “In Tokyo.” Lyrics of this song include:

“In a strictly guarded industrial facility In the outskirts of the city Where future is made of iron and plastic I experienced something fantastic Down in Tokyo I made out with a robot It felt gentle, but robust”

    With lyrics like this, it’s no wonder that the Glambots rally around artists like the Studio Killers.

    Being such a niche group, the group really has to create content for themselves. There are artists in the community that create MTT “fanzines” such as this one: mtt-fanzine.tumblr.com. These artists come together to create artwork of their favorite character. Fans can then purchase these fanzines and the proceeds go towards the artists and towards a fund specifically targeted to help transgender people get hormones, sex reassignment surgery, and any other help they may need. The group prides itself on helping queer people in need, while also fighting for the equality of these people. An important part of their mission is to be intersectional, focusing on how color, gender identity, socioeconomic status, and a variety of other factors can impact the experience of a person. The group has a fansite called “glambots.com” where they share fanart, fanfiction, photography, music, and art mediums of any kind on the site. The website is a place for planning rallies, events, and the main event of the year, METTACON. METTACON is a convention where glambots of all kinds rally together from all over the world. This convention takes place in Washington, DC. They celebrate Mettaton, and every cosplayer cosplays from the game Undertale, however most end up cosplaying some form of Mettaton. There are different versions, outfits, etc that people decide to dress up as. At this convention people sell art, music, and merchandise all dedicated to Mettaton.