Faisa

The MC of the story is an embalmer and mortician, they see dead people often. It's like looking at strangers on the street, or just another client. What they both have in common is that they're forgettable. You may take in their features in that moment, but from that point forward it's nothing memorable. What makes it memorable is the route where you're falling for Chaoxiang and realise that he has something to do with the death of Jane. To know how she dies, you need to see the rash, to really look. From that point on, Jane isn't just another dead body, she means something. Jane is a pivotal character, she's the driving point of the visual novel and why it happens. So, I think showing her in this exact moment when you check for the rash was intentional. I think this is further proven, as later in the game, you don't see the fiance with the blue tie’s dead face, you don't remember it.

Owen is stated as a distant friend of the MC, unlike your good friend at work who you do see. He's stoic and doesn't outwardly show his emotions much (as far as the MC is shown). The route where you defile a grave, then turn to the said deceased’s son and tell him to forget about his own mother's murder, his rage. That's what stays with you. You don't see his face when you become selfish, you see his face at the worst point of his life. His anger to the point it takes over and he attempts to kill you.

I will be writing from a viewpoint that I feel like hasn’t been talked about in the fandom in enough depth or at all really. I wanted to share my theories and bring a different lens into how we interact with Undertale and maybe after reading you can see it in a different way. At the beginning of the game as Frisk begins their journey through the ruins you can read a tablet that says ‘Only the fearless may proceed. Brave ones, foolish ones. Both walk not the middle road.’ Which I think is a massive point toward the  self discovery aspect. I think the entire underground is a metaphor for finding yourself. It’s quite ironic because of how linear the underground is but i dont think it's speaking literally. Even though the environment is the same, what you do matters. Ultimately you choose what happens to the underground you become the angel that saves them by freeing them or by ‘getting rid’ of them  A big theme of Undertale is choice and consequence, self discovery and the person you are is a choice and has a consequence to your surroundings. The fact that monsters are made up with compassion, hope and love. Humans banished them under the mountain and a human travels throughout the underground, through that coming to face ; compassion, hope and love. To go through challenges and struggle. But despite everything. You are still you, it's still just you. Undertale is about finding yourself and loving yourself despite what happens, despite the mistakes you make, despite you not being perfect. Only strong beings with a powerful soul can live to the surface - anyone can experience traumatic events but only people who want to be better can move on from them and get better. I also believe the underground is a metaphor for hiding yourself, being trapped under a whole ASS barrier… to keep those things away (compassion, hope and love)  because of the war which I think is an allegory of trauma or even society. I believe you can argue both but for this particular essay I’m gonna lean more towards trauma since I think it fits better with my overall point. You have something bad happen so you decide to lock it away and toughen up. When you go to the library there is a quote from one of the books that says ‘they will never know the joy of expressing themselves through magic.’ You hide these parts of yourself and to protect yourself you sacrifice your happiness but nothing will ever hurt you again right? I think the fact that 8 human children come down is the constant internal fight within yourself at different stages you give up and you stop. Eventually you continue to try and try and try and eventually you can do it. Either by killing all your love, hope and compassion or by finally freeing it. A quote from the game that I personally think encourages people to continue on to find self love through self discovery is when you speak to the Snowdin bunny shop keeper where she says “That's life aint it?, As long as we got that hope we can grit our teeth and face the same struggles, day after day…”. No one said it would be easy, it's not. Undertale makes a constant effort to show you that it's supposed to be hard. That's why ‘brave ones and foolish ones do not walk on the same path’ it takes so much it takes determination which with all the other human traits is something that is critical to moving forward in life. I also think Undertale tries to show how to live life through the smaller things. Different save points that fill you with determination down to the mouse eventually getting the cheese or the cold spaghetti that doesn’t move.

Another point to further support my analysis 🤓 is when Napstablook says to lie on the floor and feel like garbage. To have hard times is normal, to feel sad and be down is okay. Ultimately though, it is your responsibility to get up and continue and this is shown by Napstabook telling the player to get up whenever they feel like it.

Also I wanted to mention Toriel's home and Asgore’s home how similar but so different they are. Toriel’s is full of colour and life and she is shown to have multiple hobbies reading, puns, baking etc. Despite her pain she continues to stick to her goals in taking care of the fallen children. Asgore on the other hand is monochrome. The only life is the golden flowers because his love is gardening and it’s shown through the color scheme that this is all he cares about. He continues to be miserable and do what he thinks is best for monsterkind while disregarding his feelings, just because he gave into anger and guilt and believes it's something he has to uphold. The differences with these two houses show the same people who went through the same trauma but how differently they handled it. I also believe Undyne’s house burning down was a show of new beginnings. As soon as she recognised Frisk as her friend, her house caught on fire. Whatever she felt before died along with her house and she became a different person with different ideals.