So with the King Papyrus ending we know Sans lies to Papyrus about the deaths of everyone.
People often note that Sans appears to lie to ‘protect’ Papyrus, people rarely note the reverse it seems, even though Papyrus seems to lie, or at least misdirect quite a lot. and a lot of the time it’s around Sans.
Papyrus intentionally waits until Sans is gone before dropping his mask of optimism and positive talking in the King Papyrus ending
and starts talking about his loneliness and fears only once he’s sure his brother won’t overhear them.
His face when he talks about everyone having “gone on vacation” strikes me as more willful ignorance/denial than actual acceptance of Sans’ explanation.
That is not the face of someone who believes what they’re saying.
I noticed that much of Papyrus’ occasional naivety and ignorance seem deliberately played up on his part. This is particularly noticeable on phone calls where Papyrus is talking to you alone, vs ones where he’s with Sans or Undyne. [example someone else posted] Depending on which context it is you’re speaking to him he’ll often contradict himself with what he claims to know or misdirect the conversation entirely.
Of course this misdirection isn’t just aimed at Sans and Undyne, as Chara/Frisk we get a lot of it too. Some of his lies seem pretty harmless and kinda sweet at face value though, such as when you first meet him and he claims he can’t get past his own puzzle in the room_tundra_xoxopuzz room, but that he will help you solve it.
Yet if you phone him at the previous spike puzzle later (room_tundra_xoxosmall), he tells you he can just step over them without needing to solve them, so him hanging around is entirely for your benefit.
Papyrus: HMMM… THE SOLUTION TO THIS ONE…? I ACTUALLY JUST STEPPED OVER THE SPIKES. SO THE SOLUTION IS TO BE VERY TALL AND HANDSOME.
(Seriously just ask him for help, if you haven’t tried it already! If you ask him, he tells you there’s a button on the tree that deactivates the puzzle). I find this whole situation kinda cute, actually.
And back on a sad note - to the King Paps ending! After his heartbreaking confessions, he quickly goes back to proclaiming he can’t give up because he has to stop everyone else from giving up.
Once again putting up a positive face to allay any concerns. And this also seems to mirror his relationship with Sans, on a larger scale.
After all, one of the first conversations you have with him contains this
And together it honestly makes me wonder how much he puts on just to stop Sans from worrying. Because Papyrus worries about Sans a lot, even if he shows it with nagging and trying to be a shining example of greatness.
I also find it interesting that Papyrus talks a lot about making friends and getting people to like him, yet when you do the Friendship Hangout (not the date) with him he still quickly decides it’s too much,
without trying to hurt your feelings, of course,
and quickly redirecting the focus onto someone else
And then there’s one other thing I want to mention before wrapping up this ramble:
People treat Papyrus’ goal of joining the Royal Guard as naive, since we find out Undyne would never let him join. But she’s never said anything about it to him, so as far as he knows it’s an obtainable goal, which he can work towards and do something about.
Then there’s one thing most monsters seem to treat as something just around the corner, clinging to hope - reaching the surface.
But when hanging out with him in his room, while talking about driving on the surface one day he says,
dismissing it off hand as unrealistic.
Whether this is a standing opinion of his or something that only came about after he fails to capture you it’s unclear. But it does give some extra insight into his character I think.
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