#also: i must continue to assert the superiority of grandpaster. boo we hate dadster boooooo

[entryno17]

hi! since you're a big gaster fan and know a lot about him, i was hoping you could explain something to me. a popular theory is the dadster idea, where he is the father to sans and papyrus. but i dont understand why him being related to them is such a common assumption. i cant recall anything in the game that implies they are related. i know there's a couple subtle hints that sans worked for him, but afaik theres nothing that shows papyrus and gaster knew each other at all. if they were closely related wouldnt they bring him up at some point, even in a small way (like papyrus telling you his dad made the core or smth like that)? plus gaster doesnt have a special reaction to their names in deltarune when he does for other characters, and its not hinted anywhere that he had a family. just seems like a pretty big detail for them to all ignore or never bring up. could there be something i am missing?

you’re right—there’s actually no evidence implying their relation (unless you wanna talk about grandpa semi but let’s not get into that lmao), so it’s nothing more than a popular headcanon. it’s really just based on the fact that sans and papyrus are two skeleton brothers that speak in special fonts, so unless all skeletons speak in weird fonts in the underground?—the conclusion most people draw is that they’re related in some way.

as for papyrus seemingly being unfamiliar with gaster—this is a part where it’s completely up to interpretation. there are a lot of potential factors regarding this, and there’s definitely no right answer (that we know of, anyway). i’ll try to break down a few different things i think are worth bringing up.

1. the extent of memory retained between timelines/resets is INCREDIBLY ambiguously specified. (this is under the assumption that gaster was forgotten/erased after his ‘death’, which i talked about here.) we don’t know how much sans remembers gaster either—we don’t even know if he remembers him at all, which is a very real possibility. sans doesn’t have a special power to remember things between resets and timelines, he’s only able to notice them due to 1. prior research on the topic, and 2. generally being a really perceptive guy (as we know from his judgements, his continual observation of the player throughout their journey, etc). he could know that something’s wrong or that there’s parts of his past that he can’t remember, but there’s a real chance that even sans doesn’t know who gaster is, only knowing vaguely that he existed. based on his “don’t forget” note and how you interpret it, retaining memory is clearly important to him—hence the reminder he wrote for himself.

the deja vu that characters show between resets is never really explained in full; it’s probably meant to be vague, and it’s something that every character seems to have. what it entails or what its extent is, we have no idea. maybe the memory that persists through it varies in some way, depending on circumstances? we have no clue. maybe sans has some vague memory of gaster, maybe he remembers way more; again, there’s no way to tell. he never directly mentions gaster either, after all.

taking all this into account, it’s possible papyrus doesn’t know anything at all. if he’s unaware of resets, maybe he doesn’t remember anything. but, if he IS aware of them...

2. papyrus is a liar. he’s incredibly secretive, and honestly more mysterious than gaster imo. we have no way of knowing how much or how little he knows about gaster or anything else; if he does know everything, he certainly wouldn’t give us any clues about it. there’s a lot of analysis on the weirder parts of papyrus, but i’ll bring up a few important bits of information.

the most important thing in my opinion is, of course, this:

which, uh...

... yeah! he has those too! what the fuck!

many people have also pointed out that papyrus seems to really hate hotland for some reason, which is where gaster presumably worked as the royal scientist. maybe there's some relation there? and before you enter the core, papyrus tells you that he won’t be able to call you anymore... which is kinda weird, because alphys calls you in the core. repeatedly. (and if you consider gaster’s weird association with phones, specifically with them not working... uhh??)

AND...!!!

we still don’t know what this means. i’m afraid to know what this means.

what i’m trying to say is that there is a wealth of strange gaster/papyrus connections. i couldn’t possibly go over all of them, but MAN. they are present.

3. gaster actually DOES react to sans and papyrus’s names in deltarune! here’s a list of all the names that get a special reaction:

notably he doesn’t react to any darkner names, but he does acknowledge sans and papyrus. so he definitely KNOWS them, at the very very least.

in conclusion, i forgot this post was supposed to be about dadster. oops. but yeah—there are far too many connections between the three skeletons to dismiss their relation, and though we don’t know how they’re related, familial relationship is a popular theory.

... they’re a font family. (rimshot)