#on my blog you love chara dreemurr or you DIE

[sunnygotsniped]

"Chara is an evil mass murderer" shut up shut up SHUT UP SHUT UUUUPPPP

[h-worksrambles]

I have talked shockingly little about Undertale on this blog but rest assured, I love that game to bits. And, as it happens, I’m having a bout of brain worms about my favourite boss fight, which is also against my favourite character. Spoilers below.

God, the Asgore fight is so good.

There’s just so much good stuff going on this fight. The buildup where you’re given a twofold image of a kind-hearted, gentle, beloved ruler and that of a king with blood on his hands. The way your meeting with him is filled with this sense of melancholy and dread as both you and he both know that neither of you wanted this to happen. The fact that he shatters the MERCY button because he feels he doesn’t deserve mercy. Ow, my heart. I’m also amazed how well balanced this fight is despite how wildly your level can change based on your playstyle. You can just fight Asgore head on, but proper use of the ACT system can also make the fight much easier. Regardless whether you played Pacifist or not, it still feels like a good final test of whatever skills you were relying on throughout your playthrough. The other final bosses are mostly in the Mother tradition of semi-scripted fights driven moreso by emotion (or alternatively, intentionally frustrating trial and error). Asgore’s fight just feels the most complete. And there’s so much more in terms of great subtle storytelling here. Much like Toriel, Asgore is also holding back. Throughout the whole fight, he never looks at you. He uses wide ranging area of effect attacks that don’t require aiming. Because he can’t bear to look at what he’s doing. Maybe it’s because he’s reminded of the other fallen humans when he looks at Frisk? Maybe it’s because of how much Frisk looks so much like Chara? Or maybe it’s to give Frisk a chance to finish him off. Considering how quickly he offers up his soul when he loses, it’s not hard to assume Asgore wanted to lose. He never wanted to go through with the attack on humanity. As much as he wanted to give the other monsters hope, he was sick of taking lives. And now, more than anything, he just wanted to see his children again...

And do I even need to mention the music? Bergentrückung/ASGORE is my favourite battle theme in the game. The melody is so emotionally charged. The buildup from chiptune to full instrumentation is excellent. And the use of leitmotif is on point. In particular, the way it reprises Heartache and Determination.

Considering Asgore’s history with Toriel is a huge part of his character, reprising her theme as part of his vain hope to see her again makes sense. It also serves to parallel how your journey began and ended, both times pitted against one of the Dreemurrs, whose tragic history has led them to a fight that neither of you want. But coming back to it after doing a Pacifist ending is even worse. In the Pacifist ending, Toriel completes her character arc by overcoming her fear and facing her past. She refuses to let anyone else die and ultimately stops the fight, saving both Frisk and Asgore. But in Neutral? There’s no Toriel to fix things. The only trace of her comes from the music. It almost makes the player miss Toriel and wish she was here to help, which is exactly Asgore has been feeling for possibly hundreds of years (at least, it could have been that long. The timeframe of Undertale is a little hazy). But there’s also the use of Determination. Whenever the player dies, they hear a voice clip that sounds like Asgore, urging them to stay determined. Eventually we learn that this a memory of Chara’s last moments, that Frisk glimpses whenever they themselves are close to death. So there’s this horrible irony that Asgore is both the last obstacle to your journey, and also the thing that’s been motivating you time and again. And it’s got even more impact since it was the moment of Chara’s death, the moment you are reminded of every time Determination plays, that led Asgore to this point in the first place. To Frisk, it’s the song that motivates them to keep moving forward. To Asgore, it’s the song that represents the moment he lost everything, one that would set the stage for him to make the biggest mistake of his life, which he is convinced he can never atone for.

Which just provides you with even more drive to convince him that maybe he still can.

Asgore is notably limited in screen time compared to the other major characters. So the pressure was on for this fight to make the best possible showing for him and it does not disappoint. Asgore is incredibly well characterised in a very short space of time, in both gameplay and dialogue, in a suitably epic and challenging fight. Even after everything he’s done, this moment made me want  to save him, to go back and find another way so he wouldn’t have to die again.

It’s been four years now since I first played Undertale (yeah, I was a little late to the party), and I still think about Asgore, and this fight, so often. It’s just superbly done.