might turn this into a fanfic or something later, right now i'm just interested in seeing what people think.
so. uh. idk how many people have read the UTY artbook but. there's one part in particular that i found pretty interesting.
it's a scrapped scene that was removed from the flawed pacifist route. let's just say i can definitely see why.
in flawed pacifist, martlet was initially supposed to try a lot harder to protect clover from asgore. the issue that the team ran into was threefold:
martlet would be extremely persistent in protecting clover,
asgore is a big softie who wouldn't want to get her hurt,
the narrative of UTY demands that clover has to die at the end of this route.
this means that the team effectively wrote themselves into a corner. the narrative requires that asgore win out over martlet in the end, but since martlet is so resolved, it's almost impossible for that to happen without a fight. a fight is out of character for asgore, who realistically wouldn't want to see harm come to an innocent monster. (besides, he doesn't really want to hurt clover, anyway.)
that makes it extremely difficult for clover to die without putting martlet and asgore's characterization at odds. either martlet has to be overly unresolved and back down earlier, or asgore has to be overly resolved and appear callous in the process. the team ultimately decided to have martlet back down sooner and scrapped the above scene, not wanting to mischaracterize asgore.
as a writer myself, i find this problem very interesting. i think the team handled it gracefully, and i agree with their reasons for coming to the conclusion they did — but i also agree with aero that i like martlet's persistence in the draft a lot more. the trick is to keep that persistence around without mischaracterizing asgore in the process.
the dev team's answer was to have martlet turn to clover and ask them to plead their case. clover (who, it bears mentioning, had recently killed ceroba at this point) is unable to muster the will to argue with asgore for their life, and ultimately tells martlet that she should go. reluctantly, martlet listens.
i find it to be an extremely elegant answer. martlet doesn't want to fight asgore, but also doesn't understand the fact that clover literally can't cross the barrier without killing him, so asgore's actions are unfathomable to her. even so, she decides to listen to clover in the end (as she always does) and leaves them to it.
when i was looking at the problem posed in the artbook, i came to a similar conclusion myself — but the details of my idea were very different than what the devs came up with.
to be clear, i'm not saying that my plan is better. i don't even have all the context for why they settled on what they did. but i AM curious to hear what people think of my alternate approach.
the scene starts the same way as the first draft. martlet, remembering all the times she's failed to protect clover in the past, is determined to keep them safe now that she has the opportunity. (the game doesn't tell us that this is why she's doing it. the player is left to guess.) she gets increasingly agitated as asgore tells her clover can't leave peacefully.
the situation escalates significantly further than in canon. with how emotional she is in the heat of the moment, martlet doesn't think to look back to clover — the way i imagine it, she wants to prove that she CAN protect them. she won't fail again, not this time.
asgore, of course, starts to become rather distressed himself. it becomes increasingly clear that he wants to tell her yes, and let her and clover go, but something is stopping him from agreeing. however, he's reluctant to say what it is, and whenever he tries, martlet cuts him off.
we seem to be on track for martlet getting the guard called on her at this point — but there is one character we haven't accounted for yet.
in a direct (if unacknowledged) nod to a ceroba scene in the steamworks, clover reaches out and grabs martlet by the wrist, looking up at her. the background music (whatever that would be) cuts out suddenly as they do, and both martlet and asgore fall silent.
the main difference is that the animation of clover and martlet stretches on noticeably longer, with clover looking up at martlet, staying silent for a long few moments, looking back to asgore, holding on for a few more moments, then letting go. it's meant to feel like a much more somber gesture than the one in the steamworks, hinting at the difference in how clover feels in this scene.
less is more for, so there's no dialogue to directly explain clover's actions. for me, though, the scene serves five purposes:
it allows martlet to stay true to her character, fighting asgore on clover's behalf and showing that she did have the resolve to throw hands if she needed to
it prevents asgore from needing to resort to force against martlet, preserving his characterization as a "big softie" and preventing him from appearing callous
it's extremely consistent with clover's characterization, since they're known to dislike seeing their friends fighting (as seen in true pacifist) and are even willing to sacrifice their soul to defuse an argument
it serves as a subtle callback to the similar scene with ceroba in the steamworks, adding to clover's characterization by implying (in my mind) that they still look back on their time with her fondly and regret killing her in spite of her mistakes
the end result is the same, with clover fighting asgore alone, and thus the narrative is preserved without compromising on characterization (and, in the case of clover, actually improving it slightly IMO)
in keeping with the less-is-more philosophy, the exact motives of all three characters are never fully explained here, but as i see it…
martlet is basically clover's ride-or-die and would never disrespect their wishes. she offers to take them back to snowdin with her as a last-ditch attempt to protect them.
asgore's reaction to this is not shown or hinted at, but with how reluctant he's been in the conflict immediately before, it can be inferred that he would honestly want clover to agree with martlet, and might even keep the truth from undyne if it came to it.
but clover refuses martlet's offer. their reasons for this are not explained, but are implied to be because they wouldn't feel right living happily while all the other fallen humans had to die for monsterkind's freedom — especially if it means that someone else will have to die in their stead.
if it were me writing the scene, i'd have martlet stare sadly at clover, and asgore do the same while averting his eyes (use the dialogue box sprites for that). this shared moment of silence is just as important for the characterization of martlet and asgore as the initial intervention is for clover.
after a few moments, martlet reluctantly agrees, slowly walking out of the throne room as she does in canon. asgore, visibly shaken, stays silent for several moments longer before resuming the same dialogue he has in the original scene.
i'm undecided what happens next. from a gameplay and story perspective, it makes sense if the asgore fight is unwinnable as it is in game, with asgore being entirely silent. if i were writing for UTY, i would leave the battle the same.
if i had free rein, though, i would have the battle be more similar to asgore's battle in undertale. asgore breaks the mercy button, and clover can use their turns to either fight him, act, or heal with what few items remain after the ceroba fight.
if you're not interested in seeing my interpretation of the asgore battle in this universe, feel free to stop reading at this point. you're not missing much, i promise.
for those who are still interested, though… let's do this.
clover's choices to progress the fight via the ACT button would be to question why asgore is doing this (which initially has no effect, then starts to lower asgore's DF), mourn the fallen humans (which immediately starts to decrease asgore's AT), and to remember the friends they've met along their journey (which initially heals clover, but stops working once they start to remember ceroba).
since clover is so much weaker than frisk, the paths to defeat asgore are very narrow and precise. this means that the vast majority of obvious routes make the fight unwinnable, including blindly fighting asgore AND only using the ACTs that seem to have the most effect.
if clover only fights and doesn't use the ACTs, each of their attacks will gradually increase asgore's DF until they're only dealing one damage at a time. once they reach this point, asgore's next attack will never end (exactly as it appears in game) and make the fight unwinnable. thus, to end asgore's fight violently, clover needs to alternate between the FIGHT button and the Question ACT to decrease asgore's DF and allow themself to keep dealing damage.
if clover only uses the Question ACT over and over and doesn't fight, it will eventually stop having any effect. that makes the fight unwinnable through violence, as starting to attack at this point will be unable to deal enough damage to asgore before the conditions are met for the unwinnable attack.
if clover depletes asgore down to 10% of his maximum HP, he will kneel, the battle music will go silent, and asgore will tell clover about chara and their death (the only way clover finds out about this).
the moral of this story is to tell clover that both a human and a monster soul are needed to cross the barrier. asgore reveals that in order to earn their freedom, they would need to kill him and take his soul. he pauses, clearly considering the option for a moment — foreshadowing for ‘take my soul and leave this cursed place’ in the original undertale — before announcing that he cannot allow that to happen.
asgore takes his trident and throws it at clover, instantly killing them. he takes their soul and puts it in the jar while apologizing, as in the original cutscene, then is shown slowly limping away from the battle due to his injuries, before the screen fades to black.
all that remains is the peaceful method to defeat him. this one is considerably more difficult, but can be completed more quickly if asgore's HP is partially depleted first. regardless, the general method is the same.
if clover uses the Question ACT and doesn't fight, it will decrease asgore's DF at first, but this is only useful if clover wants to partially deplete asgore's HP before going the mercy route, and does not progress the fight on its own. the Remember ACT only heals their HP (and can only be used a limited number of times), so it ALSO doesn't progress the fight, but might be necessary to use once clover runs out of items.
that means the Mourn ACT is initially the only way to progress the fight. it decreases asgore's ATK, making his attacks easier to survive and allowing clover to conserve their limited heals. this ACT becomes more effective the lower asgore's HP is, allowing the fight to be completed more quickly if clover partially depletes asgore's HP first.
when clover repeatedly uses the Mourn ACT, asgore's ATK will eventually reach a minimum value. this makes it impossible to progress the fight further via that ACT. if they continue to use it for several more turns after it starts having no effect, asgore will eventually overcome his reluctance and start to raise his ATK again (ensuring the deaths of the other humans will not be in vain). this also makes the Question ACT have no effect. at this point, the fight becomes unwinnable through either method.
the only way to resolve the fight peacefully is to deplete asgore's ATK to its minimum value by mourning, then start to question why he's doing this. at this point, asgore starts to have dialogue boxes for the first time in the fight — initially just "..." but gradually starting to reveal more of his motives as clover continues to use the Question ACT. once the Question ACT is used at minimum ATK, the Mourn ACT becomes greyed out and unusable, and it becomes impossible to win the fight through violent means, locking in the peaceful ending.
asgore explains that his initial wish was for monsterkind to live peacefully underground and never return to the surface (a nod to a dialogue line by gerson in the original undertale), but that his people demand their freedom. he explains that he doesn't want to kill humans, but — despite many research efforts by Dr. Alphys — he knows deep down there's no other way to break the Barrier. for the sake of monsterkind, he has no choice.
at this point, clover questions him about something different: the fallen down monsters in Alphys's lab. remember, this is after a Flawed Pacifist run, so Clover knows about Kanako in great detail. asgore admits that he really just hoped it would save the lives of the fallen Monsters, and had no real expectation of it helping to break the Barrier.
clover's next Question ACT directly questions asgore about kanako. this is the first thing that genuinely shocks asgore — he was previously unaware clover knew about the ketsukanes. hesitantly, he explains that he knows no more about the progress of alphys's research than anyone else, and hopes that kanako makes a speedy recovery.
clover questions him about chujin next. this one starts to get through to asgore, who reveals that he always regretted how he handled things with chujin, especially after hearing of his passing and what happened to his daughter. he adds that, if he ever got the chance to talk to chujin's widow, he would like to apologize to her — though he knows she would likely never forgive him.
he pauses upon seeing clover's expression (which is never directly described to the player). after a few moments, he realizes from the look on their face that ceroba is already dead, and falls silent.
clover's next question act reveals that they have ‘nothing left to say.’ the battle ends, cutting back to the overworld, with the Barrier behind and the souls on either side.
asgore remains silent for a while longer, then hesitantly asks clover a question of his own.
…recognizing from the guilt in their expression (something he's very familiar with) that ceroba's death is a difficult topic for them, asgore instead asks about martlet. he recognizes that she and clover cared about each other dearly, and asks if there's anything else they would like to say to her.
clover's only dialogue option is “I'm sorry.”
after selecting that dialogue option, they willingly give up their soul to asgore. a few moments after their soul is placed in the jar, they collapse, and asgore kneels by their side. he thanks them, telling them that their sacrifice will be remembered by all of monsterkind.
the camera pans over to reveal that martlet snuck into the Barrier Room while asgore and clover were fighting. she says nothing; the screen fades to black. roll credits.
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