Sans: Difference between revisions

Prior to the events of ''Undertale'', monsters and humans were engaged in a war, and the monsters were easily defeated. They were then sealed away beneath the surface of the Earth by a magical barrier. According to the town's locals, the skeleton monster Sans and his brother Papyrus appeared in the underground Snowdin Town one day and "asserted themselves." The player human first encounters Sans after falling into underground Ruins, then making their way out into Snowdin Forest. Sans is seen tagging along with Papyrus as the latter attempts to capture the human, 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 the player 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, the player 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 apparent bags underneath his eye sockets, which have floating white pupils. He wears a light blue hoodie with a gray hood, black shorts with white lining, and white shoes (later updated to become pink slippers). He is about half the size of Papyrus. Sans is generally 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 majority of the game's optional story paths, Sans is encountered late in the story, right before the final boss room. Here, Sans "judges" the player, 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. He also expresses suspicion that the human has some sort of "special power," and encourages them to do the right thing. In a post-credits scene, Sans phones the human 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.

If the player avoids murdering any monsters and goes out of their way to befriend several of them, Sans's SOUL is among those stolen by Flowey, a diabolical, SOULless flower who seeks to absorb every monster's SOUL for himself in order to return to his previous identity, Asriel Dreemurr. The player must confront the lost SOULs of their monster friends, including Sans, to return their SOULs and free them. After Asriel is convinced to stop fighting, he frees the monsters from the underground, and Sans and the rest of the population return to the surface world.

If the player purposefully seeks out and murders every possible monster encounter, Sans takes on the role of the final boss of the game in place of his usual "judgement" 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.