SwapFell Goes West

Swapfell Goes West: Muffet

One of my favorite designs. She has a similar personality to her Undertale original. She had her spiderling spies all over the place, and her pet lives in an old spittoon. Muffet didn’t actually know what spittoons were used for, just that they were in every saloon in the movies so of course hers needed one too.

Swapfell Goes West: Grillby

Sans: I WILL SHOVE THAT GUN OF YURS SO FAR UP YUR ASS YOU’LL BE TASTEING LEAD FOR WEEKS!

Papyrus: Sans, please calm down. Remember what the doc said about your blood pressure?

Sans: THAT QUACK CAN LICK THE DUNG OFF MY SPURS! I DON’T EVEN HAVE BLOOD!

Papyrus: .... I think it’s time to go home.

Today we are looking into some major players of the Underground. The Royals!

Swapfell Goes West: Asgore Dremurr

Asgore is here and he has a tiny hat!!! I love his tiny bowler hat, too small to properly fit his head, much like how his banjo is too small to hold properly. He isn’t dressed with a fancy monk inspired outfit like the hermit Asgores/Torield in other AU’s. Too much effort, plus he’s too busy with his banjo to plan an outfit. He wasn’t to become a famous banjo player

Swapfell Goes West: Madam Toriel Dremurr

Okay, radio host/musician Napstaton was definitely the trickiest design. A doll or mannequin would have been weird, and the only way to incorporate robots was to base him more on steampunk style (which works since Undyne created the body, and she loves sci-fi and technology).

I was doing lots of research on steampunk robots and decided on a hybrid between those and Mettaton EX, along with fashion of circus ringleaders. He definitely strays the most from the original Undertale designs. Like proper looking eyeballs would have been impossible to make with steampunk tech, so I went with glasses. His boxy for is based on 1930’s style radios.

His cane is inspired by some of the first microphones to come out. They look like funky circle pendants, and imagining him singing with the steam coming out around him, tap dancing and flaunting around is such a fun image.

Snowdin Town:

The “frontier settlement” of the Underground. Very small with only a few residents and fewer buildings. Besides a couple wooden houses and the two water mills, the most notable buildings are The Inn/Shop, Muffet’s Saloon, the Town Hall, and the Skeleton’s log cabin/Town Jail on the outskirts of town.

The Shop:

Run by Dogami. Always high in price but stocks plenty of preserves either shipped in from New Home, or the rare hunted small animals and fish that were unlucky enough to fall into the Underground or wash in from the river. The Inn is located next door.

The Inn:

Run by Dogressa. A place where anyone passing through town can rest for the night, and even get a decent meal.

Muffet’s Saloon:

The best place in town for residents to drown their sorrows away in alcohol. Also the gathering place for listening to radio broadcasts by the only celebrity in the Underground, Napstaton.

Church of the Angel

Church is led by Preacher Politics Bear. Located where the Inn would normally be. He preaches that salvation is nyeh for those faithful, and when Chara comes he’s completely dead set on announcing their arrival (despite Chara being desperate to keep a low profile).

Town Hall:

What is normally called the ‘Librarby’ in cannon is transformed into a town hall with multiple functions. Here is where town meetings are held, and biweekly showings of western films are displayed on an old projector screen for townsfolk to come and enjoy, a small thing that continues to unite the town. Though a minor collection of books are available here, literacy rates aren’t the greatest in town. For better reading material one would need to venture to New Home.

Skeleton Cabin/Town Jail:

The home of the Underground’s Sheriff and his younger brother. He takes direct orders from Madam Toriel, though he often acts independently in distributing justice among the lawless bandits that plague Snowdin Forest. The Rabbit Militia yields to his order. Their home is also attached to the town jail, a very small building that was converted from an old shed. Citizens know it’s best to stay out of their way, or at least enjoy the spectacle that is their lives from a safe distance.

Local “Pharmacist”:

Feeling drained? Ill? On the verge of death? Come visit Burger Pants, the Snake Oil Salesman! Sure his cures are scams and likely water from the river with moldspawn slime for extra texture, but if you believe it helps you get better, then that’s all that’s important.

Powering an Old Western Style Underground:

The Core doesn’t exist due to the lack of research in the field. Though science is studied under the orders of Madam Toriel in hopes it will lead to a solution for their escape from the mountain, the entire discipline is far more rudimentary.

There are three primary power sources in the Underground.

The first two are located in Snowdin, and only power a select few buildings. There are two moderately sized wooden water mills, which generate enough power to barely light The Community Building (Librarby) and Muffet’s Saloon, along with powering three phones and two radios located in the Community Building, Saloon, and the Skeleton’s house/Jail. Due to its distance from Hotland there is no better way to power it, keeping the town rather dark and reliant on candlelight. It’s the closest to a western style town in the Underground, despite all the snow.

Hotland is the greatest source of power in the Underground, all thanks to the efforts of the retired Doctor Gearson and Doctor Undyne. Instead of the core, a large steam engine was built over Hotland. There is a dam on the river leading into Hotland, and the water flow is controlled based on the amount of power that needs to be generated. As the dammed water enters Hotland, the heat generated from the surrounding lava evaporates it into steam. The steam is collected in a series of pipes, becoming a pressurised source with enough force behind it to turn a series of massive flywheels and pistons, which ultimately powers the generator that gives electricity to Hotland and New Home.

Background:

No one exactly remembers how monsters came to America, not even the monsters themselves. Perhaps they had set out on ships to avoid persecution in Europe, or maybe they arrived there alongside the first humans to cross the land bridge into modern day Alaska.. Either way, the large colony of monsters had set up their homes among the Cascade Mountain Range of North America near what would eventually become California. Over the decades the monsters had varying relationships with the surrounding human tribes. Some were hostile, while others were willing traders of food and other resources. It was a hard life but a peaceful one.

That is until war broke out between the Native Tribes and the monsters. A several year drought had made food a scarcity, and in a likely bid to preserve resources for themselves the races engaged in a harsh war. The monsters lost, and were ultimately forced into tunnels leading deep inside the mountains, the entrance being sealed by human shamen. Requiring seven human souls to unlock the barrier, monsters were trapped in their new home, which became known as The Underground.

Over the years, as Europeans overtook the continent and developed major cities along both coastlines, garbage would occasionally wash up along the river that ran from the outside world through the Underground. Among these glimpses of human culture, something very interesting washed up one day. A very well preserved film reel. Managing to create a working method to view it, the monsters were exposed to something they had never seen in their lives. Black and white moving pictures of a Wild West film.

Monsters were completely enamoured by the sight, and couldn’t get enough of the “picture show.” As the years went on, western films fell out of style among humans, and many film reels, video tapes, and DVDs of the genre ultimately ended up among the garbage washed Underground. Though other genres of film showed up, westerns were by far the most numerous and popular. These much beloved films ingrained themselves into the monster culture over many years, gradually taking up many aspects of their daily lives. Human film stars such as Clint Eastwood, John Wayne, Sam Eliot, and Amanda Blake became heroes and role models to a population desperate for an escape from their horrible situation. Everything from clothing style to accents and behavior was eventually integrated into everyday life.

When a modern child, Chara, falls into the Underground, it’s very much like stepping through a time machine to the mid-eighteen hundred. It’s the Wild West down here, and monsters are eager to capture the last key needed for their freedom.

Here we go!

🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠

I never draw guns in general, but they are PARAMOUNT to any Western, so I bit the bullet (heh) and worked on one. I decided the original design I used for his gun in the comic looked silly, so I redesigned it to have a Gaster Blaster engraving instead of an actual skull on it. I think he looked better with the exaggerated spurs though. Also he pays Greater Dog in bones to be his Mount across the underground. He knows all the horse knowledge but won’t admit it. He really wants to own a real one some day.

PS: They both gotta wear bandanas under their hats to keep them in place. So really they are both doubled up on bandanas. Sucked not having g hair sometimes.

His scar actually stems from a bullet he took to the skull during a shootout over the fate of Snowdin (I just forgot to draw him without the hat so I’ll have to do that later).

Serious Clint Eastwood obsession, he tries to emulate him whenever he can. Law has grass in his inner pocket from Waterfall so he can chew on it like Eastwood did with cigars in the film “The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly.”

Papyrus is my favorite in the way he turned out. His nickname started out as “Walker” after the show “Walker Texas Ranger.” However! I now think “Hat” is more appropriate. He does have many of them.

So say hello to Hat! The owner of the infinity gallon hat!

He also has a giant cowboy hat sitting in his bedroom that he had commissioned by Muffet. He uses it as a bed because Law won’t let him wear it around under threat of burning it.

Today I’ll start posting designs and information about the various characters from this Universe.

Undyne’s got that Doc personality from “Back to the Future.” Also loves steampunk and electricity, having a strong fascination with it. Also she just seemed like the type that would wear a simple dress with big old boots. Her goggles help balance her plainness out. She is shy and definitly out there, with a lot of anxiety.

This is the first time I’ve ever drawn Alphys, and she is pretty difficult to draw overall. I can’t make her ultra nerdy and hunched over like her original design, so I tried giving her a more intimidating, upright posture. She wears a similar uniform to Sans, as it is part of the uniform assigned by Madam Toriel.

Also hats don’t work well with her head spikes and she is pretty salty about it. Someone recommended she impale tiny western hats on every single one of her spikes, and I kind of love the idea.

SwapFell Goes West

This won't become a full comic series or anything, but I’ll publish more info about the characters, location, and how the world of this AU works may or may not do some single comic strips here and there if I find the energy). Also be on the lookout for more art/short comics involving it!

Idk what Papyrus and Sans’s nicknames would be. Sheriff? Law? Walker Texas Ranger? So many possibilities.