#dichromatale

The drawings are not just realistic/detailed, but also very expressive. Indeed, some drawings are so emotionally riveting within the context of the fiction one may have to stare at them for a few seconds, in comprehension and admiration. The pictures, beyond being just really pretty, are highly functional. Using one or two (rarely even three) illustrations per chapter, the author shows off skill in setting the feel of the chapter. In effect, the illustrations serve as “anchors” for an impression, emotion, or scene, and as a sort of guidebook calibrating the imagination and one’s overall experience.

The other distinctive traits of the style is the color palette, lineart leftovers, and background painting style.

Like the game itself, with its retro Game Boy Advance-style graphics and music, the art style succeeds not despite its limitations, but because of it. Exempting the figure drawings, which the author clearly devotes a lot of energy to, the illustrations show the principle of “less is more”. To be clear, this doesn’t mean they are minimal, lazy sketches. Rather, the author economizes on detail and image cleanup, likely to devote more energy to more important, salient parts of the image (the figures) and to make them less time-consuming. (After all, never before have I seen with a fic that consistently has 1-2 illustrations per chapter.)

One of the “economizes on detail” aspects is the limited color scheme. It is probably a deliberate stylistic choice to give a particular impression, and it makes art production less time-consuming as only a helpful bonus.2 While “black and white” or “greyscale” may be the first thing that comes to mind on hearing “limited color scheme”, here, it is instead a sepia-like palette. Colors range from dark brown to various off-white shades to white, with some dark brownish-grey and, rarely, black (mostly for Sans’ eye sockets).

One of the rare colorful illustrations, from Chapter 31.

In Undertale’s largely black-and-white battle screens, actual color is used sparingly. When it is used, it indicates quite clearly that something is important to a scene.3 Similarly, in Soul Dichromatism, colors outside the sepia range are used sparingly. It's used for things such as SOULs (thematically very important for the work), blood, magic, and houses or plant-filled scenes described as very colorful in comparison to what Frisk is accustomed to.

However, even in the colored outdoor scenes, the colors are limited, muted, and brownish: full-intensity color accents (like eyes, SOULS, or blood) keep a conspicuous, attention-grabbing effect. The illustrations often give off an impression similar to historical, sepia-tinted war photos, and, given the setting, that's very appropriate.

While the undersketch of the artworks is often visible, it is not a conspicuous detraction from the picture or the fiction. Plant life is rendered in minimal sketches, and colored in an almost watercolor-like style that frequently goes outside the lines.The sepia-like style is instantly recognizable and enjoyable. In the rare few colorful, plant-filled scenes, the level of detail applied to plants, “paint smudges”, and palette bring to mind 1968's Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day, for lack of a better comparison. (Not a bad thing: I grew up with a positive association of the background style)

Length, Plot, and Pacing

Soul Dichromatism is, at time of writing, 176734 words and 41 chapters. As someone who prefers fantasy books with 300+ pages, this is very much to my taste. Given my habit of devouring books (and fanfics), even if binged, a fiction as long as this one would take about five days to get through, so its long-lasting nature is much appreciated.

Now, there are some multi-chapter Undertale fanfifcs that are merely “airport novels”: very long for the sake of length, hooking the reader forward without a strong plot, characterization, or deeper meaning. Soul Dichromatism, however, is not just riveting throughout, but each chapter serves a purpose. Not every chapter is action-packed with a bunch of events, and some are mostly long conversations. Each chapter, however, fulfills a function in fleshing out characters, setting up tension, explanations for later, or some combination. Indeed, I think of it as fast-paced for someone with high reading stamina.

Characterization

The main characters (characters whose thoughts and perspectives the readers are privy to) are Asriel (he didn't die in the "buttercup plan") and Frisk, so understandably they get the most characterization and character development. However, they are not the only ones getting characterization. Soul Dichromatism has a host of interesting characters. Alphys, Papyrus, Sans, and Undyne get characterization and character progression; Mettaton and Monster Kid4 also get some characterization and progression, to a lesser extent.

Though the fanfic is about war, it is interesting how little war and violence occurs on-screen. (as commentators have pointed out) Rather, much of the plot and conflict focuses on the societal and psychological consequences of the Second Human-Monster War. Though the fic has some violence and the occasional swearing, much of its angst is not based on, say, torture or specific horrific events of war, but characters' realizations of just how deeply unethical and unjust the war (and their actions in it) are.

The biggest conflict is whether “monsterfication” will work, either in a full transformation or for the intended purpose of ending the war, and the ethical ramifications of using the process to end the war. Adding onto the conflict are the various characters' disparate attitudes and perspectives on the war, which prove very interesting to analyze. All the different perspectives lead to a Blind Men and the Elephant-like scenario: each new perspective adds to a greater whole, giving a clearer and clearer picture on the scale of the war.

Rather than being rewritten into essentially new characters, each (canon) character excellently portrays how they would act in the scenario of a forty-year-long war with humanity. Undyne, for example, is still the heroic, aggressive warrior who cares a lot about justice and is clearly prejudiced against humanity. However, actually being in a real war with humans for years, and befriending the human-turned monster Frisk, forces her to confront some fearsome ethical questions. Is the war justice?

Still, even with all these different facets, there’s a thread of mystery adding tension to the whole thing: why did humans start the first human-monster war to begin with? Occasionally characters give intriguing, unexplained lines, leading to plot threads Frisk checks out to better understand the war.

Other

Now, to explain my controversial, somewhat "clickbait-y" opinion. I say this is better than the acclaimed One by One by CourierNew not to disrespect One by One, for CourierNew’s works are to Undertale fanfics what Miyazaki films are to anime. Rather, it feels One by One goes by too fast: it has short, relatively few chapters, with some chapters being so packed with fast-paced action sequences they're more like textual storyboards for an acclaimed action-adventure film than a fantasy novel. Beyond excellent reading comprehension and imagination, One by One doesn't ask the reader to engage the brain much. Once it’s over, it’s over.5

Soul Dichromatism, however, brings up multiple threads of inquiry: why do monsters think of humans the way they do? How can they claim to be kind and compassionate, and yet destroy human towns from afar and pick through the survivors to kill them “execution-style”? Indeed, how can they be genuinely kind and compassionate and yet still do horrible things?

Curiosity on these issues leads to potential learning on philosophy, sociology, and psychology. I’ve gotten into David Livingstone Smith’s articles on dehumanization and Joanna Burke’s very thorough What It Means to be Human book because of its applicability to Soul Dichromatism. The fiction warrants several analysis posts, and by analyzing it, I can wring more enjoyment out of it than I can One by One.

While my old Soul Dichromatism posts need an update to improve their coherency, they remain some of the posts I’m most proud of. I even made Soul Dichromatism and dehumanization the subject of a final project for a college class.

I eagerly await the fiction’s next chapters.

Compare to The Anomaly, with a similar level of realism/detail (though a very different style). ↩︎

Coffeelemental’s The Anomaly shows the perils of time-consuming detail and realism: an animation with her character design was much less than the animation industry standard of 24 frames per second, took a long time to make (admittedly she’s just one person) and to make it even possible she had to subtly cut corners to make her characters simpler to draw. Camila Cuevas’s GlitchTale, on the other hand, has almost Microsoft Paint-like figures, lineart, and backgrounds (in Season 1; it gets better) but highly dynamic and fluid animation: especially for its famous battle scenes. ↩︎

Note how Asgore’s battle has red bubbles from a purple background coming from the bottom of the screen. ↩︎

Called Artie in the fic, and now a teen. ↩︎

1. Depersonizing Propaganda

(I’m using “depersonizing” as a species-neutral alternative to “dehumanizing”, because it’s the humans being “dehumanized” by virtue of their being human, not monster.)

The first reason monsters don’t act compassionately is propaganda. The HLC belief, and other beliefs on monster and human souls works as depersonizing propaganda, even if it wasn’t originally conceived as such. The beliefs on human souls imply humans are inherently spiritually inferior to monsters, and are less loving, less compassionate, and more prone to “negative emotions” than monsters. With this in mind, killing humans isn’t as horrible as, say, killing a monster.

The HLC belief and other beliefs on human souls are so widespread and/or strongly held, they persist even in those sympathetic to humans. It is Alphys, a scientist who studies human souls and loves human anime, who claims human souls’ “stronger potentiality for negative emotion” as the basis of her suggestion Frisk’s hatred for monsters will subside once fully monsterified.

Even Asgore, who adopted a human child and surely interacted with humans prior to the first human-monster war, seems to believe humans aren’t as hopeful, loving and compassionate as monsters (though they can be, if helped):

(Chapter 3) Asgore: “Humans… are a troubled species, Asriel; as much as we became now… but they can be capable of love, hope and compassion as much as we are, if we give them the chance.” (This suggests Asgore thinks humans aren’t already as capable of those emotions as monsters)

(Chapter 26) Asgore: “…[Asriel], do not sell [Frisk’s] ability for compassion this short. Humans…may be more disconnected from those emotions [hope and compassion, possibly love] than us, however, with the help of loving friends, I do believe-”

As far as can be told so far, only Asriel denies the claim human souls do not need hope, love and compassion to exist:

(Chapter 32): “There were many monsters who thought that, because humans could live without Hope, Love and Compassion, that they didn’t need those things. [...]Asriel knew it was untrue from the time they knew Chara. [...]Asriel knew humans fell down too. They did not lie down and rest like monsters, humans still moved, talked and could even pretend nothing was wrong, but they were falling down all the same.[...]Humans needed Hope, Love and Compassion as well.”

2. Personal Experience

The second reason monsters don’t act compassionate are the personal experiences of soldiers, and those affected by the war. A battlefield is no place to make friendships with the other side, but that’s Undyne’s only exposure to real humans. Though Undyne admires human-made anime and the ideals of anime, she is not compassionate towards humans because they murder soldiers she cares about.

(Chapter 26) Undyne: “[When Asgore was unable to] I ended up teaching most of [the new soldiers].” [...] “I think… I think the hardest is when those youngsters end up dying before I do. I got no kids yet, but… but I bet this is how parents feel when… when they lose their children.”

Artie (Monster Kid's name in the fiction) also has personal reasons to feel no compassion towards humans, even if humans' effect on him is indirect. Artie’s sister fell in love with a soldier. When that soldier was killed by humans, his sister fell into despair. Eventually, she became so hopeless she became “fallen down”, a coma-like state preceding death. (in the fiction, monsters can die from lack of hope) Artie seems to blame humans for his sister's death. This blame, a possible desire for revenge, and perhaps glamorous TV ads of war1 motivates him to become a soldier.

It’s unclear whether Sans believes the beliefs on human souls. He might have personal reasons to believe humans are cruel, due to Frisk trying to kill his merciful, friendly brother Papyrus. He calls Frisk “an enemy” on multiple occasions, and his “skeletons in the closet” story in Chapter 16 might suggest he thinks humans are violent and untrustworthy. However, Sans says he doesn’t think he hates Frisk. He wishes he could, but Frisk is not easy to hate. It’s possible his distrust of humans comes not from propaganda, but from realizing the two groups are on opposite sides of a conflict with two different end goals. He might not have a strong animus against humans in general, just Frisk in specific.

3. Emotional Exhaustion/Maintenance of Morale

The third reason monsters aren’t compassionate to humans is emotional exhaustion/maintenance of morale. Some monsters, such as Asriel and Asgore, have positive associations with humans but still do not act compassionate to them. This is because the circumstances of war mean there is presently no feasible way to be compassionate2; Humans are simply too dangerous as individuals and as a society.

Extending compassion to the enemy, but being unable to stop the war, might cause a sense of internal turmoil and helplessness. Beyond the direct threat of humans, this gives the war an extra layer of danger: in this fiction, HP is an acronym of “HoPe”, so when monsters are totally hopeless, they fall down and die. Hardening their hearts and cutting out all compassion for the enemy, (if it’s even possible for them) would help them cope with a war with no end in sight. It’s possible this hardening of the heart is an effect of gaining LV. One can see coping mechanisms in Asriel and Undyne. Despite his positive experiences with humans, Asriel feels nothing when he kills them,3 and if what Frisk thinks is true, Undyne’s face becomes emotionless in a “mask of war” and she dissociates4 to cope with the horrors of combat.

(Chapter 30) Torria: “The people at large must have hope, and it is up to us [the rulers] to give it to them…”

Due to monsters’ need for morale/HoPe, at many points in the fiction various monsters reduce the human-monster Frisk to nothing more than a symbol: a symbol of hope for a peaceful future where monsters don’t have to kill. In doing so, they have no empathy/compassion for Frisk. When it comes to humans more generally, Torria (a relative of Asriel on the Boss Monster council) suggests using monsterification on children to raise monsters’ hope, as well as population.

4. Out-Group Threat

(Alphys in front of a prototype for a magic cannon that can blast across continents)

The fourth reason is that monsters believe humans are a threat to their existence. Humans are very dangerous both as individuals and as a whole, due to their physical strength, “killing intent” bonus, sheer numbers relative to monsters, and, to a lesser extent, military technology. Indeed, they’re so dangerous it’s too much of a risk to make them prisoners of war, so every battle is “take no prisoners” by default.

While many of their tactics failed against monsters, humanity still seems to have a massive military, to the point of still causing trouble at the western coastal front of the war. Though humans tried diplomacy in the past, it failed, for monsters were too “drunk on recent victories”. Now, monsters have killed so many humans that monsters believe diplomacy is no longer an option. As monsters believe the humans would annihilate them if given the chance, monsters feel the only way to ensure their own survival5 is to destroy humanity, either completely or almost so.

Even if monsters are indeed more compassionate than humans, it certainly doesn’t show up when fighting humans. They seem subject to the same psychological tendencies as humans, for greed, rage, and a desire for revenge were factors in both starting the war and continuing it.

Reducing or eliminating the threatening nature of a situation reduces out-group hostility.6 It is possible that, if humanity had a ceasefire and stopped attacking monsters/trying to regain territory, aggressive or non-compassionate sentiment towards humans would subside. However, it is unlikely at this point. Just as in the first Human-Monster War, the fear of a being with godlike power (here, Asgore) is likely to interfere with anything approaching diplomacy. (especially since diplomacy was refused before)

At this point, monsters believe there’s no backing out of the war. As Flowey might say, “In this world, it’s kill or be killed!”

“Nice TV images”, Chapter 9 ↩︎

Not for lack of trying: “They [monsters] tried to keep human prisoners before, they were still trying occasionally, but it turned out to be too risky [because they kept trying to flee and harm monsters]” -Chapter 1 ↩︎

Chapter 21, Asriel: “…I think… I think the actual hardest time…[killing a human]” He snorted and looked at her with an expression of tired sadness. “…It was when I realized I felt nothing at all anymore.”

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Chapter 12: Undyne had her face completely devoid of any emotion.

A mask of war… something Frisk had seen on human soldiers.

‘Dissociation’, her dad had told her… Get away from the pain… get away from the horror… Become [a] spectator of your own body."

↩︎

Chapter 25, Undyne (to Frisk): “I think you’re WRONG about most monsters deserving punishment for what we do to your people, I DO believe we’re justified still, both to fight for our survival, AND to get revenge on what your people did to us in the first war.” (Emphasis mine)

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