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Fundamental Concepts • Cosmology • STATs List |
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Introduction
UNDERTALE is basically my favourite game alongside with the MOTHER series, due to its themes, original gameplay, superb OSTs, charming characters and designs. This blog will try to explain the fundamental concepts of the verse, which are necessary to entirely understand its nature and to debunk some misconceptions of it.
The SOUL
Let's start with the fact that in UNDERTALE some of the names are capitalized due to them being described like that in game, since, as you might know, it's extremely metafictional and a decostruction of the RPG gener, and UNDERTALE references in particular to the old ones like the first Pokémon games, MOTHER series, the first Shin Megami Tensei games and so on, where some of the names are capitalized. Now that we've explained this detail, I'll go on, explaining what a SOUL is.
A SOUL is the little heart we see each time we're fighting against monsters, and is the true culmination of the being of the living beings, and can even grow and become stronger with LV (LOVE), which I will explain later what actually is.
Why is it so much important in the verse? The intro already says that many, many years ago, two races ruled over Earth, Humans and Monsters. One day, war broke between the two races, and monster, after being defeated, were forced to go under a mountain and to be sealed there. But why? Let's see what actually happened thanks to the inscriptions in Waterfall.
This explains lots of things that will be brought up across this blog, so make attention to have understood all of these inscriptions.
Why does it say that the monsters were reduced to dust? Well, when a monster dies, they reduce their body to dust instead of decomposing, like here. The dust has also the monster's essence.
The reason why they reduce to dust, is because Monsters are made of magic like Humans are made of water, and thus being physically way weaker than Humans, however, thanks to this, they're naturally able of using magical abilities unlike Humans.
Monsters SOULs, because of this, are linked to their body, and this is why when they die, their SOUL vanishes too, unless is a "Boss Monster", which SOUL can last few minutes before being destroyed too with the body, and they're also vulnerable against a foe with murderous intentions while they don't want to fight because such a physiology.
A Monster's SOUL is also made of feeling as well.
Here's a demonstration of what a Monster can do after abosrbing an Human SOUL, aka the whole story of Asriel with Chara's SOUL, where the monster asborbed the latter's SOUL, and if it wasn't for the fact that Asriel didn't want to fight while being attacked from an entire army of humans, he could destroy them all with no difficulty, and that's with just an human SOUL.
Asgore did take the SOULs of the humans that fall after Chara as Toriel implied, and was confirmed when facing him, when he showed the Human SOULs that he collected in jars, waiting for the 7th to absorb it and destroy the barrier.
Monsters in UNDERTALE so can actually interact with the SOUL and even destroy it via their magic, as even confirmed in the Mad Dummy fight, where, as it was just a spirit (aka a SOUL), Frisk couldn't harm it if it's not for aiming its own magic attacks against itself, confirming that UNDERTALE verse magic can attack directly the SOUL, as even confirmed from Flowey, who, after explaining how a SOUL works, attacks it, and even confirms it later (the whole stuff about Flowey reffering to us as Chara will be explained later, no worries), plus the fact that in any single fight the monsters aim for the SOUL, but Frisk can just attack with physical blows confirms it too.
So, in UNDERTALE, Magic can be used to directly attack the SOUL (and non-physical beings as well), and everyone can tank such attacks as physical ones.
STATS
Why are them relevant? Simple, unlike most of videogames where STATS are counted as simple Game Mechanics and thus, ignored, since lore and cutscenes matter the most, in UNDERTALE they're canon, and there's an explanation of them. Other than the classic "HP, ATK and DEF", there are also the LV (LOVE) and EXP.
EXP is the measurement of the amount of pain a character inflicts to others via hurting or even killing them. LOVE, instead, is basically the amount of violence a character takes as they take EXP, and when they take enough EXP, their LOVE increase, and the more it does, as explained from Flowey and Sans, the more the character becomes strong.
STATS are acknowledged as being canon, and thus, characters scale from them. And I'm reffering to the CHECK STATS, not the internal stats, since they're the real game mechanics that should be ignored, due to them behind all the damage calculations to fit what's happening with all the "monster's willing to kill" stuff, like Toriel having just 6 ATK in data or Asgore having 10 ATK in data while both in CHECK have 80 ATK, and that makes sense, in in Toriel's fight she didn't fight to kill you, but Asgore did, so the only STATS which matter for the scaling are the CHECK ones. Here's a list of all the CHECK STATs which are currently used for the characters' ratings.
DETERMINATION
Finally the part y'all waited for, DETERMINATION (DT in short).
Let's just point a thing before. Flowey IS Asriel, since Asriel's dust (which I remind having still his essence) was forcefully implanted alongside with DT in a flower according of the True Lab entries behind said experiment, and thus "ressurrecting" him as Flowey, making the DT not just a power gathered from feeling, but a solid substance that literally gives powers, which, as stated in the entries of the True Lab, is even extracted from Human SOULs with a machine.
Chara was clearly possessing Frisk after their death, so that's why Flowey recognized them despite the host body (and Frisk can tell their name if they're in themselves).
Now that we pointed this out, let's describe the various levels of DT.
First level of DETERMINATION
Flowey explains what happened after awakening in the new body:
This story gives to us a lot of hints about how DETERMINATION works, which can basically:
- Make the User go back in time to the previous SAVE POINT when they die, like when in a videogame the player dies in a level/fight and can go back to the saving point to try again. DT Users can do that as is a real power, which is called "SAVE and LOAD".
- The DT can work even if the User lacks a SOUL, as shown with Flowey, who, due to lacking one, he doesen't have any feeling anymore, so, the User can go back to their SAVE POINT even if they got killed from an Existence Erasure against both the Body and SOUL.
- Can make the User even "RESET" the SAVE FILE like when in a Videogame the player restarts a whole game from zero, since Flowey stated that he interacted with the Underground in any single way possible, meaning that he has RESET the timeline more and more times thanks to this ability. Users can also LOAD if they want to return to their SAVE POINT, making also their LOAD and not just the RESET voluntary and not activated from just their death.
- An User with more DETERMINATION automatically blocks all the other Users with lesser DT from using their own SAVE, LOAD and RESET powers.
- DT Users have Type 1 Acausality, since they can remember what happened before a LOAD or RESET occurred, like Flowey, who remembers whatever happened after the LOADs or RESETs of Frisk.
- The RESET grants to the User not only Time Travel, but also Causality Manipulation, since, after a LOAD or RESET occurs, all the progress of even all the DT Users get RESET as well to the way they were at that point of time, like the LV gained. For example, when Frisk makes a RESET, all their progress got reduced to the way they were at the start of the game, like their LV, which was 19, returned to 1, meaning that it can null all the progess of anyone, even Type 1 Acausals.
- Any time a LOAD or RESET occurs, the User travels back in time to a new timeline as implied from Sans, who claims that, after a RESET, to "not tell what happened to the other sans-es", meaning that at any LOAD a new timeline occurs. The huge number of LOADs and RESETs done from the DT users are the reason of why UNDERTALE has a Multiverse.
- DT Users can also increase their own statistics, like Frisk who can increase their level of DT if truly needed or Undyne, who can even trasform in her Undying form with her DT if there's a true threat to both Monsterkind and Humankind.
And, as I said before, that's just for the lowest level of DETERMINATION.
Second level of DETERMINATION
An higher level of DT is already displayed with Photoshop Flowey, who is basically Flowey after absorbing the Human SOULS.
Flowey, with this new power, displayed new abilities:
- Completely erased the SAVE FILE and created a new one with his own informations and datas.
- Completely distorted the intro and overwrote the window text first in "FLOWEYTALE", then glithcing it completely.
- The SAVE and LOAD powers got upgraded, since Flowey can also create new FILEs and LOAD them even in battle, making Flowey able to basically spam the Time Rewind as he wishes to.
- But not only Flowey got this level, Frisk as well, despite not getting these offensive abilities, since with their increased DT they still could damage Flowey, (even if barely, and Flowey implied that he was casual all the time since he can one-shot Frisk even while weakened from the SOULs rebelling against him), meaning that they resisted all that rewrite, so both they and Flowey got Resistance to Reality Warping, Data and Information Manipulation.
Third level of DETERMINATION
Last level of DT is the highest one.
Let's start with introducing what a TRUE RESET is.
It is basically a form of RESET that allows the User to completely RESET everything, even the memories of the DT Users, meaning that it can RESET the memories of even Type 1 Acausals, bypassing such state.
But who can use it?
As Flowey said before, he needed one more SOUL to reach Godhood, and 7 SOULs are needed to become such. Since all the Monsters SOULs toghether equate to one, Flowey absorbed them all to have the power of 7 Human SOULs, returning in his original state as Asriel Dreemurr, the God of Hyperdeath.
With this new power, Asriel decided to RESET everything, even the memories of Frisk (who was mistaken as Chara due to the similarity of their SOUL).
And what does he mean with "world"? Well, the Multiverse, since after that Asriel destroys a timeline on-screen and trasforms in his Final Form, the "world" was ending, meaning that world in context means all the cosmology. And Asriel already implied that he can destroy the Multiverse already in base form. And that's not surprising, since his STATs are infinite, making him on a whole different level from his Photoshop Flowey form.
Another example of Multiversal levels of AP from the Third level of DT is from Chara (which, how can some of you have already figured, it can have their name changed from the player), who claimed to be the very feeling of the Player to increase their own STATS after being awakened from Frisk's LV.
And is confirmed being a Multiversal level of AP from some things:
- Chara completely destroys the game, leaving just few files, a feat way more impressive than Photoshop Flowey's.
- Chara later took the Player's SOUL as a deal, restoring the game after destroying it, as the Player tried to get the game back after that they've found just a black void after re-opening it.
- Frisk couldn't jump to a new timeline due to having their DT completely surclassed from Chara's.
- They can't have be destroyed just one timeline from that "let's erase this pointless world and move to the next" claim, since on the DELTARUNE official site it was claimed that despite the UNDERTALE and DELTARUNE's worlds are completely different and unrelated, they might be still connected, meaning that there are more universes than UNDERTALE's, so Chara was reffering to them.
But not just this, this level of DETERMINATION reaches even Mid-Godly levels of Regeneration, but why? Let's see:
- When Frisk dies, they're so strong that they can return from death from literally refusing it, and they couldn't LOAD due to their DT and Asriel's being equal, meaning that if they can't LOAD, they can still return from death from regenerating from it.
- The concept of death in UNDERTALE, as said before includes even Existence Erasure of both Body and SOUL, due to base Flowey LOADing when both his body and SOUL were gone, and since this new levels of DT allow the user from even return from death if they can't LOAD, they can return even if both the Body and SOUL got erased as well.
Debunking some misconceptions
There are some misconceptions that need to be faced on.
Monsters are Below Average Human level, why is wrong
This claim comes from the fact that since Frisk seems like a random child and they're the one who can kill all the monsters, these are weaker than the average human. However, one of the main reasons why such a claim is wrong is because, as explained before, is the power of the SOUL which determines all the other trait of the character, even their physicals. And, other than monsters having various superhuman feats, Frisk can also have various levels of DT depending on who's fighting against.
Plus, Frisk can be a threat to humanity if they want to.
Undyne, a Royal Guard who was trained to fight against humans, says that Frisk can destroy the whole humanity.
Mettaton, a robot designed to eradicate humans, says that Frisk is a threat to humanity too.
Asgore, who fought humans lots of times, says that the fight between Frisk and Flowey will decide the fate of also the whole humanity.
And the whole lore of Asriel with one human SOUL being able to one-shot a whole human village if he wished debunks such claim too.
So Frisk is easly above the average human being, and Monsters as well.
Photoshop Flowey is stronger than Chara, why is wrong
The reason why such claim comes, is because Photoshop Flowey has 9999 LV, and Chara has 20 LV. However, that was Frisk's LV, not Chara's, also more LV =/= being stronger regardless, since despite Frisk was LV 10 against Undyne the Undying, the latter was still way physically stronger.
Also if Photoshop Flowey was Multiversal, Asriel's goal wouldn't make sense since he wanted to RESET the Multiverse in that form, meaning that he was unable to do so with 6 SOULs, but only with 7.
Conclusion
This blog explained the fundamental forces of the UNDERTALE verse and how they work, debunking also some misconceptions of it, hoping that everything is clear.