#brb gotta change my tags to account for long ass essays like this

[unma]

I didn't think I was going to write a full on essay about Papyrus and this was just going to be a minor thought but it spiralled into a long ass ramble so uh I'm giving it a title.

Papyrus Genocide Route AUs

(or: why the fuck does no one who does this shit actually spend the time to consider how these actions reflect on Papyrus's character and instead make him flip between happy torturer that isn't actually Papyrus and the forgiving Papyrus with any lack of nuance whatsoever?)

Watching a fan genocide au animation and I'm once again presented with the hallmarks of Undertale bad writing™️ but I do like the way these scenarios provoke thought about what the characters would do. I'm still of the opinion that Disbelief Papyrus is still a rather faithful if rough around the edges portrayal of his character, but I don't see many fan animations of Disbelief really acknowledge all the reluctance that simmers within Papyrus during the entire fight, such that the only reason you win is that he simply cannot ignore that side of him who still wants to forgive you.

He knows you killed everyone. He knows he is the final step and that you likely won't change. But it's only a 'likely', and that 0.001% chance is still enough for him to want to let you try regardless. The battle ending on the note of forgiveness and second chances is perfect, because really, how else would it end? Papyrus is too kind and too competent for it to end in you overcoming him after a mountain of reloads. His death was always going to be a betrayal kill.

On that note, Dustbelief Papyrus's methodical nature in forcing you to quit highlighting that he is just as knowledgeable as Sans about what the best option for winning is and is even more competent at performing that simple act is imo still a good portrayal of him. This is a Papyrus who has to wrestle with the actions he's committed, which while started by pure accident, has made killing a viable option of achieving this now that LV ensures he has lesser reservations about killing. The human can still change, they just have to be forced into it, and what else is a more effective method than punishment?

(There are issues with how the very nature of magic working on intent and Sans's theoretical 1 hp inevitably being increased by all the lv he gains, but I'm a Dusttale fan and never bothered criticizing the original premise of the AU despite just how out of character it is and how much build up and slow change that would be necessary that is missing from most depictions of the AU so really why should I care. These are superficial issues at best, really anything can change once you are burdened with the knowledge of being in a timeloop where your actions mean absolutely nothing and you watch everyone you love die, so like what justification do you need there?)

I don't recall if Dustbelief!Papyrus's battle ends on a note of him returning to his old self, but I believe that to be rather impossible. Both brothers has the (vaguely possibly real?) phantoms of the other influencing their action, and I find it very hard to believe that the part of Papyrus who considers leaving himself vulnerable would be able to break up to the surface with a Ghost Sans there to remind him how he's done that before and it was a very bad idea. He knows you'll never truly die, so why even have any reservations about killing you? For you, death is a minor inconvenience. For him, it's at best a major setback and at worst the end of his very existence. The end of everything and everyone as well. Another loop ended, another to begin. If he loses here, what's to say the coincidences necessary will happen this time? What's to say even if they do he won't just forget and end up the same way? There is no guaranteed second chance for him, and Papyrus is competent enough to not even let the chance occur.

I have a major hang up with the possibility of the human actually winning in a Dust route, given the mechanics of the game. I always thought the original ending to Dusttale (the game) having Sans abruptly die was dumb and illogical, but at least the human had the luxury of some kill stealing here. Even with the comic incomplete (though it's actually recently received updates and if this is the first you've heard of it you should check it out), it's clear that Papyrus is ruthlessly efficient and even exploits the human's ability to load to trap and mess with them, so at best for the human they get there with a bit of LV. At worst they get absolutely none. If Sans was so good at eating up all the kills, Papyrus is absolutely cracked at it. And given how I've explained that Papyrus isn't going to give himself up to be killed, I see legit no way Papyrus loses other than a human with no-hitting levels of skill like Merg or Shayy or something. (Is Shayy a no-hitter? Idk I never watched much of their videos. Hell I don't even know their pronouns it's that bad. It's 12:30am and I have a love-hate relationship with Opera as I slowly make the switch to Firefox so crucify me but I don't have the energy to look that up rn and deal with my cruel treatment of Opera resulting in it's absurd ram usage. Why am I on this tangent again? I swear never let me write these things.)

Anyway if game development wasn't a major pain in the neck and I had a family who wouldn't probably make my life more of a hell if I showed them that I probably have ADHD and need meds and not the power of Jesus fucking Christ and I had more time to do this stuff I'd make a fangame and post it and get some criticism to try and encourage more thought provoking analysis of Papyrus through alternate genocide routs but the former of those is unlikely for the near future (and even once I move out I don't want to imagine what it would cost to live and get meds, I think I'd rather just keel over than deal with all that stress) so instead I'm making very obviously ADHD induced rants about this while I sit halfway through a disbelief x last breath fan animation at fucking half past 12 while procrastinating replying to a dm and actually writing the fic I'm very excited to write but can't be bothered to write and huh I'm starting to think that I'm probably not wrong that I might have ADHD huh. What was this post about again?

This can't even be called a proper essay anymore. sorry about that. If you enjoyed my Papyrus ramblings please ignore the rest and simply tell me your thoughts. Even if you think I'm wrong I wanna hear why you think so and talk about it because I need to know more about Papyrus so I can write about him with confidence please I love this boy so much. He can fit so much nuance in that lovely skull of his. It's a shame his brother stole permanent residence in my brain where he would be.