Sans: Difference between revisions

Sans is a skeleton monster who lives in the frosty town of Snowdin, alongside his brother Papyrus, in a cavern populated by monsters underneath the surface of the Earth. The player character, Frisk, first encounters him after leaving the Ruins. He is seen tagging along with Papyrus as the latter attempts to capture Frisk, but consistently fails. Papyrus's schemes, though clearly passionate, are easily foiled and appear to stem more from a desire for recognition and service to his fellow monsters than any sort of malice; Sans, meanwhile, informs Frisk about these schemes well in advance and only appears to participate in them to encourage his brother's pursuits. This relationship puts the duo in a sympathetic light, and after befriending Papyrus, Frisk has the option to visit his and Sans's house.

In terms of physical appearance, Sans is a squat, humanlike skeleton with a constant toothy smirk and bags underneath his eye sockets, which have floating white pupils. He wears a light blue hoodie with a gray hood, a white tank-top, black shorts with white lining, and white shoes (later updated to become pink slippers). He is about half the size of Papyrus. At first, Sans appears to be a laid-back, flippant character; he has a fondness for sophomoric gags and practical jokes. His dialogue text is presented with a typeface resembling {{s|wikipedia|Comic Sans MS}}, usually in all lowercase (in contrast to the standard font used for most other characters, a monospaced typeface resembling the Windows system font Fixedsys). However, as the game progresses, it becomes clear that Sans is more self-aware than he lets on.

In the "Neutral" route of the game, Sans is encountered in the Last Corridor late in the story. Here, Sans "judges" Frisk, revealing that experience points and levels are directly linked to how willing they are to inflict pain and death on others. His speech will change depending on the course of action that the player takes throughout the game, with special dialogue if they killed Papyrus (which is notably not presented in his usual font). He also reveals that he is aware of the game's saving and loading mechanics — viewing them as a method of controlling time and space — and he encourages Frisk to do the right thing. At the end of this route, Sans phones Frisk and informs them about the end result of their actions on the monster community, dependent on which events were initiated and if any boss monsters were killed.

In the "True Pacifist" route, meaning every encountered monster is spared from defeat and befriended, Sans's soul is among those stolen by Flowey, a diabolical flower who seeks to absorb every monster's soul for himself. The player must confront the lost souls of Sans, Papyrus, Undyne, Alphys, Toriel, and Asgore to return their souls and free them. After Flowey is neutralized, Sans joins the rest of the now-freed monsters on the surface world.

If the "Genocide" route is taken, meaning every encountered monster and all random encounters are killed, Sans battles Frisk in the Last Corridor in a last-ditch effort to stop them. In this fight, he uses extremely swift and highly unpredictable attacks, typically utilizing "Gaster Blasters" (laser guns that resemble skulls); in addition, his attacks inflict a rapid health draining effect referred to as "Karma", representing punishment for the torment inflicted by the player's actions. While Sans only has a single hit point, he consistently avoids all of the player's attacks until the very end, where he decides to simply not attack, thus never ending his turn in the battle. To finish the fight, the player must wait for him to fall asleep, allowing them to defeat him in a single hit. He then limps away, dying off-screen.

In ''Deltarune: Chapter 1'', Sans makes a cameo appearance as a resident of Hometown (which is the hometown of the main protagonist, Kris), now owning and operating a grocery store (which in turn is the "Grillby's" bar found in ''Undertale'', except closed down). Upon talking to him after returning from the Dark World, the player can ask him about his store or talk about the people of Hometown, including Kris himself, Alphys (Kris' school teacher) or Kris' mother Toriel, who Sans jokingly mentions he "already befriended her last night". Sans also asks Kris to come over to his house to meet his brother before the end of Chapter 1, hinting at a bigger role in future chapters.

*Sans and [[Cuphead]]'s reveals as Mii Costumes are unique in that, as both of their games' logos are white, their reveal trailers contrast the logos against a black background rather than a white one, with the black color of ''Ultimate''{{'}}s logo being inverted accordingly.