Tut tut tut, Hiccup and his gambling problem indeed! Absolutely unacceptable for a leader to go about gambling all the time, wouldn’t you say? I mean, I know he needs to earn back Berk’s gold somehow, but this is not the best way to do it...

Hi guys! I’m so sorry I’ve been kind of MIA, as far as IHFAP posts are concerned. I haven’t been in the most positive mindset recently, and I wouldn’t want to put that kind of emotional baggage on this project. But, I do have a few announcements for you all:

There’s not going to be a RTTE livestream again this Friday because I’m going to be out of town going on college tours. But if you want to chat, feel free to hit me up whenever you want! I should be available again to host livestreams next week!

I know this was kind of awhile ago, but one of the award categories of my 2k Followers celebratory Tumblr Awards event  - the Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III Award aka Best Overall / Fan Favorite - is closing nominations on July 15! For this category, you nominate up to five of your favorite bloggers through asks or messages. The top ten voted bloggers out of the initial nominations will then be further voted upon for the final title. If you want more information about the category or any other categories you want to be considered for, make sure to check out the original post and ask any unanswered questions you have!

IHFAP Informational Post // IHFAP Sept./ Oct Recap // IHFAP Nov. Recap // IHFAP Dec. Recap // IHFAP Jan. Recap // IHFAP Feb. Recap // IHFAP March Recap // IHFAP April Recap // IHFAP May / June Recap // IHFAP #112

Spotlight: @proxy1983

(late reply is late but here we go!) @proxy1983

Solaan felt strangely hesitant to do this, but he felt like it would be a good idea. Perhaps if he and Proxy had a nice, casual outing together, then the two would understand one another better. Perhaps he would feel more comfortable around her.

I’ve heard a lot of people talking about it lately! I’ll admit I haven’t watched it and I’m not itching to watch it. I’ve read up some on previous theories by other fans of Gaster being Sans and Papyrus. It’s something that I think is a unique and creative idea, but which I’m not convinced about with myself for several reasons. Lots of those theories about Gaster coming from Sans and Papyrus, at least the ones I’ve seen with their main courses of arguments, rely upon jumping from one piece of evidence to another with intuition and shaky evidence rather than a very noticeably solid connection. What I mean is that the evidence they choose doesn’t exclusively narrow to their theory... it could be interpreted/explained multiple ways with no less clarity. It doesn’t mean their theory isn’t what happened, but it isn’t the firmest way to prove a point... it means it can never get beyond the speculation stage unless further evidence is garnered in its favor.

The most I’ve done at this stage is read up on @saveloadreset‘s response to the video, just to quickly see if the video had new content and argumentation for the Sans and Papyrus being parts of Gaster theory. I know I cannot analyze or speak accurately of a video when I haven’t seen it, but the fact that it seems to use the evidence of Sans and Papyrus appearing from nowhere into Snowdin is something that always gets me a little concerned about a theory’s solidity. There could be so many different reasons that two characters can appear out of the blue in the middle of a town. Many of these reasons could even be benign and uninteresting in truth. The fact they suddenly arrive in Snowdin could even just mean they moved from the Capital to another village. That would make the brothers appear out of nowhere to the people of Snowdin, from their perspective. Now I agree that the comment can make people suspicious, and maybe we are supposed to be suspicious, but using that as evidence when there are so many possible explanations tends to be pretty weak evidence. Again, it can’t narrow down possibilities and be used to funnel in your theory if you can just use that same bit of information to talk about something else just as plausible.

Please note that none of this is stated with dismissiveness! After all, that is what is fun about Undertale. And that is what is so fun about the fandom. That is why I legitimately have so much enjoyment and respect for hardcore Undertale lovers. It’s the fact that so many people can come up with different theories about the game with lots of interesting ideas, connections, and points in the game to try to prove their point. I love it... there’s always a new idea, a new argumentation, a new discourse, or a new take on a popular theory. And I’m quite sure that the video has a lot more compelling evidence and connecting the dots than that which I briefly mentioned! So it’s all very cool and I have respect for it! XD

But I guess I really can’t respond with merit unless I watch the video. Apologies for having not seen the video at the time of responding to this! I just want to make sure I respond promptly to you. XD I guess one thing I do want to say is that, because I’ve been working for a long time (almost a year now) on a fanfiction about Gaster and Sans and timelines, working it in with my own self-concocted ideas... I’ve actually intentionally avoided reading too many theories and fanfictions and comics about the old Royal Scientist. I’ve wanted my fanfiction to stay pure to my own imagination, and if I read too much on what other individuals have concocted, then my story might accidentally start soaking in their ideas. Then it wouldn’t be my genuine imagination anymore. So unfortunately it means I can’t do good discourse with everyone about what someone else theorizes, especially in the realm of Gaster. But for me, it’s been worth a little bit of cloaking myself, because it means I’ve had a lot of fun with the imagination of this fic that I wouldn’t have gotten otherwise! ^.^ So apologies again for not being able to give you a good response... but that’s why!

Of course it always depends upon how, why, when, and where the character dies. A character’s death narrative is an impacting thing; the saddest deaths for me are based somewhat on who the character is, yes, because I have favorites… but it also is largely contingent upon how the story is told. The worst deaths for me are ones that have power behind the event. 

I’ll admit that character deaths are some of my favorite things about fiction, if not even my number one favorite thing. I know that sounds gruesome, but consider: when a character dies well, there is so much power and potential resonance within the story. The strength of the story reaches extraordinary heights here. We see how the other characters are impacted, how their motivations might change, how their personalities might shift, how they handle grievous and horrendous times. There is so much room for character growth and emotional connection. We see how the plotline is impacted before, during, and after the death. Deaths can be key pivot points. We can see characters snuffed out shockingly in the middle of their growth - some characters never reach fulfillment and their full potential, but die before they can before who we think they will be. Other characters die in jaw-dropping betrayals or emotion-evoking, heroic, inspiring sacrifices. For me, the power of the emotions in character death scenes are incredible and amazing. And these are areas which can feel very natural, or which we can relate to in our own lives. I could go into a whole ramble about what writing strategies in fiction tend to give the greatest impact of death, but that might be a little out of topic for this response.