Undertale · 3:40am Jan 9th, 2016
Wow. Undertale is a really good game. Like, you know how you’ll hear about this amazing new thing that everyone is raving about, but when you try it out for yourself you can’t figure out what all the hype is about? Undertale is not one of those times. Surprisingly enough, it actually is deserving of most, if not all, of the hype it’s been getting. Seriously, if you still haven’t bought it yet, then here’s one more random internet user telling you that this game is something everyone should experience at least once. For those of you who have played through the game, check below the break for a couple more of my thoughts on the game and how it relates to MLP.
SPOILERS BELOW THE BREAK!
So, I just finished the Undertale pacifist run, and one thing that really struck me was the similarities to the season 5 finale of My Little Pony. In particular, the parallels between Starlight Glimmer and Asriel Dreemurr. It’s interesting to me how both characters seem to have similar motivations and actions, and yet reactions to them were very different. Speaking from my own experience, I found Starlight’s backstory to be an unsatisfactory explanation for why she acted the way she did, but even though Asriel’s reasons and actions are essentially the same, I didn’t feel cheated by his character motivations. So, what exactly is different between these two characters’ stories, and why does Asriel’s seem much more justified than Starlight’s?
To start off with, let’s mark the similarities. For both Starlight and Asriel, the departure of a close childhood companion caused them to become evil and rip apart their timelines in an attempt to get things back to the way they were before an interloper destroyed the world they’d made for themselves. They can also both be defeated through mercy and friendship instead of violence and hate. So, why are we more likely to accept Asriel’s explanation as a reasonable motivation? Maybe it's because we spend more time in the world of Undertale and are more directly involved in shaping the world, thus making us more invested in the story? But that doesn’t really explain why we’d be more tolerant of the antagonist’s motivations. I don’t think it has much to do with the specifics of each characters’ actions and motivations, how far they were willing to go, or how easily they were dissuaded. No, I suspect that the answer lies more in the actual, physical characters themselves.
For me, the main reason why I don’t think Starlight’s motivations work well is that she’s, for all intents and purposes, an ordinary unicorn. Differences in species aside, it’s not hard to relate to Starlight’s beginnings because she’s a normal kid who had one of her friends move away. That happened to me too, but I didn’t start a cult and try to destroy the world because of it. It just seems like an unrealistic reaction. In Asriel’s case, although their stories start out similarly, he eventually becomes a soulless being incapable of love, and it’s through this form that he sets out to destroy the player. Both settings have magic, but because Starlight is still mostly normal, if not a little misguided, her actions seem unwarranted. Asriel, however, is still only a child, and has spent countless years as a soulless demon slowly losing his humanity. As a result, the reasons why he does what he does seem more justified. Well, those are my thoughts on the matter anyway.
On an unrelated note, another interesting factor in Undertale is that the player always seems to have control over the game. No matter how bad things get, no matter what Flowey is subjecting you to, I never really felt like I wasn’t in control over my actions. For example, though Flowey kept boasting over everything he could do and all the havoc he could wreak, the only way he could communicate with me at all is if I let him continue speaking by pressing Z. Another thing I took notice of was that the royal family’s surname was Dreemurr. I kept thinking that would come up, like the entire world was a dream I’d created and I could only escape it by defeating my inner demons to wake myself up, or something. Although the dialogue did mention it all being a bad dream on a couple occasions, my theory never really came to fruition in my playthrough.
Well, that’s all I have to say for now. Comment down below if you have something else to add or just want to discuss Undertale in general.
I think it's pretty obvious why Asriel is a more sympathetic villain... I'd explain, but I don't know if you've done the genocide run yet. It goes into more detail about Asriel and Chara's relationship.
Yeah, I've only done the one playthrough so far, so there's probably a lot more going on that I'm not aware of yet. This was more of a first impression type of thing I decided to write after finishing the game. I guess my point was that although Starlight's motivations seemed to fall flat, there is a way to write them so that they make sense even at such world-ending stakes. I just thought that was an interesting parallel between the characters.