You stepped into the wrong neighborhood, pal.

One might consider this a PSA to all Undertale AU writers, particularly role-swap ones.

I’ve written and worked with a lot of different characters over the years, and while this is probably a gross oversimplification, I find that if you want, you can break down a character’s personality into three big parts:  their interests, their experiences (Or lack thereof), and their relationships with other characters.

Viewing things in this light seems to make it clear to me why this fandom has gotten so into role-swap AUs—simply by changing the roles of the characters, you can transform the entire story, creating something new entirely (Even if derivative).  Of course, you have to make sure the end product resembles the original somehow, or else it becomes difficult to appreciate as a fan work, but a fair number of role-swap AUs seem to have a handle on this—while keeping the character’s primary interests the same, they imagine the ­experiences that lead to the character taking on this role, and how they would interact with the new characters surrounding them in their own respective new positions.

I could go on to make examples to demonstrate this, or I could point to some great existing examples of role-swap AUs.  But that’s not what I want to talk about today.  Today I’d like to talk about what happens when you ignore all that.

Today I’d like to talk about Altertale.

Greetings. I know I have not used this space in some time. I know the posts I have made before now have not been the most pleasant. While I somewhat regret the time I spent on my Altertale critique, I will not be erasing my past.

I do have something new to share with you, however.

This is Union of Two Hearts, my entry to, and the second-place winner of, FMS’s Undertale AU comic contest.

You may click the link here, or the image above, to be taken to the full album. It is just over 400 images, so I recommend setting aside a significant amount of time to read it.

I try to avoid making rant posts, but something recently really made me feel like shit, and I wanted to take some time to address this issue.

Please stop insulting the Storyshift Reboot designs.

I completely understand that it’s impossible to please everyone. There are always going to be people who, for their own reasons, prefer preboot Storyshift over the reboot. It’s completely fine to have a preference!

The issue here, however, is that people are taking it way too far, and reacting to the reboot designs in an unhealthy manner. This has included:

Trash talking the reboot’s character designs in the comments of fan-art, which is completely unwarranted and disrespectful to the artists

Making posts flat-out insulting the reboot and its designs, without offering any kind of constructive criticism–just saying “it’s bad, the old one was better.”

Acting disrespectful towards people who respectfully disagree with their opinion, going as far as to marginalize others’ own opinions (e.g. acting as if number of followers = how much an opinion matters)

It’s possible to dislike something, but deal with it in a healthy way. It’s completely unreasonable to start slinging insults, especially when the content isn’t hurting you or anyone else in any way, shape, or form.

It’s important to recognize how your words affect other people. In the case of content creators, it’s incredibly disheartening to see people insulting your hard work, and the things that you’re passionate about. What finally bothered me, after seeing so many people insulting the designs I made for Chara and Asriel, was somebody flat-out stating they “genuinely hated” them. As somebody who was incredibly proud of the designs I made, and passionate about contributing to the Storyshift reboot, this made me… incredibly sad, honestly.

A lot of this I’ve seen is simply due to attachment to the original Storyshift, and not wanting to accept change. This isn’t to marginalize people who have had legitimate complaints, mind you–but there have been people complaining who are missing the entire point behind why the changes from preboot were made. Every change in the reboot has been done to more faithfully portray the characters’ selves, as well as create a brand new world which they interact with.

Now, this isn’t to say that your opinion is “wrong!” You’re allowed to like or dislike whatever you want to (at least, as long as it’s not hurting anybody). All this means is that you should recognize the weight your words have on others, and be respectful to people with different opinions.

I may certainly disagree with people who suggest that the preboot Storyshift designs were “better” or “more fitting,” since that’s kind of rude–they’re part of a fundamentally different AU at this point, with the reboot essentially being what Storyshift was meant to be from the start, sort of. But this doesn’t mean that I’m going to be mad if someone has a simple preference, is respectful about their opinion, and acknowledges the reasons behind the change.

If for whatever reason you didn’t read through this completely, my only closing remarks are as follows:

I just wanted to draw something bittersweet :’3 Chara waiting for Asriel, so they can finally rest in peace together….

it doesn’t have to make much sense. I just really like drawing grown up Chara and Asriel :’D

The Drunk Trio

Only Frisk can see Chara, shenanigans ensue

Flowerpot Flowey being the only other person who knows about Chara hanging around, he can’t see them but sometimes it feels nice to know

And sometimes it doesn’t

“Chara says you’re an idiot.” “wELL WHO’S THE ONE WHO GOT BOTH OF US KILLED IN THE FIRST PLACE, H U H?”

Sometimes he goes out of line, but eventually he’s forgiven

Everyone thinking Frisk just….talks to themself…or has an imaginary friend….

“Frisk, who are you talking to?” “*Tell them you see dead people.” “I’m rehearsing for a school presentation”

Chara doesn’t need to eat, sleep, shower, etc. Doesn’t stop them from reminding Frisk to do so.

Because Chara doesn’t need sleep, they spend all night roaming around like a goddamn pained soul, being the nightmare in Frisk’s sleep paralysis

Sometimes they switch in certain situations (i.e Chara possesses Frisk)

Frisk mysteriously gets all As in tests

Chara pays attention in class for them, because they like to learn

Frisk inviting people over to play ouija except its Chara moving the thing around and trying to impersonate different types of ghosts/demons. The best time was when they pretended to be Satan

Chara narrating everything for old times’ sake and Frisk being so fucking tired of it

“*You tell Toriel to restock on chocolate.” “No I don’t.” “*You do.” “You can’t even eat, Chara!” “*I will steal your flesh.”

“*Stay determined.” “Shut up.”

Frisk keeping golden flowers in their room for Chara

Also Frisk keeping Chara’s heart locket safe; they never take it off 

Chara endlessly talking because being a ghost with only one person being able to see you gets boring sometimes

Frisk just sighs and lets them rant

Chara being able to interact with the world (or not) at will and by extent, knocking over stuff like a cat

The two of them knowing each other like the back of their hand

Their insecurities, their fears, their likes, their strengths, everything

* Things are hanging by a thread!

Ohh heck, new Paper Trail part is here! With BOSS BATTLE. This one was fun, but also a little tricky to do. Really kind of hard to depict moving bullet patterns in a static medium.

Also sadly, there’s probably gonna be a pretty big gap between this update and the next one. I’m still working on getting my drawing wrist better. While it’s improved a lot, it’s still not there yet, and going back to work full-time means it’s tougher to do outside drawing. Also, I’m VERY close to finishing all of the artwork for my other webcomic that has a more set schedule, so I decided I wanted to focus on getting the rest of that done first.

However, once I finish work for my other webcomic and when my wrist is healed, that means I’ll have a lot more time for Paper Trail and updates will be much more frequent! So, just hang in there for awhile, more PT stuff will be coming along eventually!

- Paper Trail -

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