History Undertale / TropesCToF

** Within the No Mercy path, [[spoiler:it's implied that Flowey's been helping you on your journey by, among other things, solving puzzles for you, just so that you could focus on your goals of destroying everything in your path. You eventually repay his help by killing him]]. Though it could also be interpreted as [[spoiler:the child punishing him for his betrayal, as he will be found trying to warn Asgore about your arrival, then when that fails and Asgore gets one-shotted, Flowey [[KillSteal finishes Asgore off]] (which, in ''this'' context, comes across as a MercyKill), then shatters his SOUL, leaving the child stuck underground]].

** In the Neutral ending, [[spoiler:you have the option to spare Flowey. He not only fails to understand this, but blatantly comments that refusing to put an end to him just means he will continue to torment you and everyone you love. Afterwards, it seems to have somewhat affected him, causing him to reveal the way to get a truly happy ending... only for it to turn out to be a ploy to bring every [=SOUL=] into his grasp. And then subverted — after said [=SOULs=] remind him of what it's like to feel love (not to mention making him capable of actually feeling it again), he immediately throws out his previous plans of destroying the world in favor of a StableTimeLoop that will allow him to play with you forever, then throws ''that'' plan out once he realizes he's being selfish and self-defeating. Even after he releases the [=SOULs=] and returns to his original state, he shows remorse for what happened even given his returned lack of love.]]

* EverybodyLives: The True Pacifist ending naturally ends with everyone in the Underground alive. In fact, everyone being alive is important to the end of the run; [[spoiler:Flowey has to absorb ''all'' the monsters' [=SOULs=] to gain his maximum power, so killing even the least important of monsters locks you out of it (though the direct reason is that you can't get Undyne's Letter if there have been any casualties).]]

* EpiphanyTherapy: Subverted with Alphys in the Pacifist run. Although she confesses to Undyne that she feels like a fraud and has lied about anime, and Undyne tells her she loves Alphys JustTheWayYouAre and enacts ToughLove by making her run with Papyrus, Alphys still doesn't feel great. You find a note before entering the True Lab that reveals she might not come out, which means that by following her, you could potentially interrupt her off-screen suicide because she protects you from the enemies within the True Labs. This is TruthInTelevision; someone suffering social anxiety and depression won't just get better and may even feel lower after a high of hearing someone cares about them.

** [[spoiler:Mettaton becomes a star, reconciles with Napstablook, and hires Shyren to sing for them. Burgerpants also finally gets his chance to shine... as a tree]].

** Papyrus doesn't become a Royal Guard member, but [[spoiler:he gets the freedom to explore his purpose on the surface, and ges a snazzy sportscar to boost]]. You can tell he prefers that.

** Toriel [[spoiler:opens up a school and works as a teacher there. She also adopts Frisk and dotes on them if you choose to starywith her]].

* EarnYourHappyEnding: On the other hand, if you spared every enemy and got to the final room with no kills? Not only did you not increase your LV (meaning you beat the game on the starting 20 HP), you still don't get the good ending unless you've befriended everybody. Then after that, you go through the True Lab, and found out the secrets of the hidden lab, as well as the truth of Flowey's existence, followed by another boss battle. The other monsters also get their happy endings:

** {{invoked}}. [[https://www.reddit.com/r/Underminers/comments/3tj4e7/unused_text_i_havent_seen_mentioned/ Two pieces of unused text have been found.]] One involves Mettaton sending you a "Mortal Enemy Request" if you deny Napstablook's friend request in Hotland (in the final game, you get the same response as if you'd accepted it); the other involves a history book entry defining what is meant when a monster "Falls Down" (while the concept is only ever mentioned in passing in the final game, the definition — comatose and near death from old age — [[IKnewIt is in line with what fans suspected]]).

** A short, upbeat tune can be found within the game files. It only plays during a placeholder screen involving the Annoying Dog that only appears if something goes wrong. Similarly, a different song plays during a similar placeholder screen used for a similar purpose: a lullaby, fitting due to the Annoying Dog sleeping on that screen.

** {{invoked}}. Toriel has a sprite that is similar to her defeated battle sprite and the file name has suicide in it, which implies that [[WhatCouldHaveBeen Toriel might've killed herself after the battle or sometime later]].

** Monsters are always monochrome in battle, but are colored on the overworld. [[spoiler:This is because all monster [=SOUL=]s are grey.]] The one exception is Froggit, which is the same color in both the overworld and in battle. Averted in a few cases, such as Toriel’s eyes and [[spoiler: Sans’...blood?]]

** Monsters are always monochrome in battle, but are colored on the overworld. [[spoiler:This is because all monster [=SOUL=]s are grey.]] The one exception is Froggit, which is the same color in both the overworld and in battle.

** Due to very different tempo and instrumentation, it's not obvious, but "Battle Against a True Hero" ([[spoiler:found when fighting Undyne in the No Mercy route]]) uses a melody which is very similar to "Spear of Justice" ([[spoiler:Undyne's usual battle theme in Neutral and Pacifist Runs]]). The similarity is due to the fact that [[spoiler:"Spear of Justice" showcases Undyne as a HotBlooded, bombastic warrior who is filled with undue enthusiasm about attacking you, while "Battle Against a True Hero" shows the same character in a more solemn, serious state as a heroine trying to hold out hope in the face of unspeakable evil that seriously threatens to plunge everything into death and despair.]]

** Purple represents Perseverance; when your SOUL is turned purple, you're trapped on three lines that you have to jump between in order to avoid the enemy's attacks.

* ComicRolePlay: En route to the GoldenEnding, the player will find themselves [[spoiler:on a date with Alphys. She admits that she likes Undyne, but can't work up the nerve to tell her. The player [[ButThouMust suggests]] that they roleplay as practice, and then chooses between serious or goofy role-playing lines. Of course, it spirals out of control regardless of the player's choices.]]

** It is implied by two conversations with [[spoiler:Flowey and Asriel]] that the [[spoiler: Fallen Human]] tried to kill themselves by climbing Mt.Ebott, due to their hatred of humanity.

* DudeNotFunny: Invoked and seemingly parodied. In one battle, you have the option to tell Woshua, a NeatFreak monster, one "dirty" joke about "two kids who played in a muddy flower garden," another about "a kid who slept in the soil," and a final one about "a kid who ate a pie with their bare hands". Woshua doesn't react well to these jokes and reduces his attack. [[spoiler:Then on a Pacifist run, you later learn about the king's children Asriel and the Fallen Child accidentally feeding their father a pie with buttercups instead of cups of butter, that they picked the flowers, and of the Fallen killing themselves with buttercups and wanting to be "buried in their village" when they wanted to kill all the humans once across the barrier. Think about it and you realize that you are joking about ''the last hope of monsters'' being killed, which makes Woshua's reaction more heartbreaking.]]

* EyepiecePrank: If the player character looks through Sans's telescope in Waterfall, they only see a solid red color. When you exit the telescope, there is a purple ring around their eye. [[spoiler:Some fans speculate that this example is actually PlayedForDrama, being [[FourthWallObserver Sans']] [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou method of testing if there's a player]]. The logic goes thus: the player character has no way of knowing they were just pranked without a way of looking at themselves, such as in a mirror, of which there are none nearby, but the player's TopDownView allows them to see it immediately. Thus, if the character confronts Sans after looking through the telescope (which the game supports), it's evidence to him that ''something'' weird is going on.]]

** If you die to Toriel, she'll show a unique sprite for a split-second depicting her shock at having killed you before you see the game over screen.

** Getting a GameOver in the BossBattle against Toriel takes some effort. You really have to be trying, since her attacks will cancel early if you have less than half health at the start of an attack. If you are one hit away from death, her attacks will actively avoid you. [[spoiler:With 11 or 12 HP, you need to run into three fireballs before her attack ends. Although LetsPlay/{{Jacksepticeye}} managed to do so ''by accident'', with 8 HP and still having the Bandage equipped, he got hit by two fireballs in a row.]]

** An in-universe example. [[spoiler:Flowey closes the game]] before you can stop him from [[spoiler:using the human [=SOULs=]. When you boot the game up again, he has already changed the world to eliminate all other threats and replaced your file with his. He then literally shatters that file, before you can overwrite or delete it. At the beginning of the fight, he makes a quicksave. Throughout the fight, he makes quicksaves right before attacking so he can unexpectedly load them later, but loading them doesn't give you back any of your health. When you finally beat him, he loads his first save, thus undoing all of your progress. (Or so he ''thinks''....)]]

** Flowey, who appears twice in the ruins and then disappears from the rest of the game aside from a few Easter Eggs. [[spoiler:Then, at the end of the game, he kills Asgore and steals the human sould, completing his master plan and revealing himself to be the true [[BigBad Big Bad]] of the game.

* {{Egopolis}}: In the Neutral ending where Mettaton becomes the new ruler of the Underground, he turns it into this.

* EpilepticFlashingLights: [[spoiler:Replaces the fakeout DefeatEqualsExplosion when the human [=SOULs=] are dispelling Flowey's "Photoshop Flowey" form to finish him for real at the end of his boss battle.]]

* EvenEvilHasStandards:
** [[spoiler:The Fallen Child voices their disgust towards you upon completing a second No Mercy route, saying that you are "wracked with perverted sentimentality". They also seem rather displeased with you if you think you're above the consequences of your actions. It's possible to interpret their "tainting" of the Pacifist route as them punishing you for what you've done in No Mercy.]]
** [[spoiler: Constantly doing Genocide runs will have [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUW7ZTr36QI even Chara telling you to stop doing them]].]]

* EasterEgg: There are plenty! But they're spoilerly enough to have their own page.

* EitherOrProphecy: The Delta Rune in Waterfall tells the prophecy that an Angel will come down from the mountain and, "the Underground will go empty." Either the Angel will destroy the barrier and free monsterkind from imprisonment, or the Angel of Death will slaughter everyone.

* CheckhovsGunman:

* DoWellButNotPerfect: In Thundersnail, if you win, you earn 9 G, which is less than the entry fee of 10 G! Napstablook explains that they have to make a profit somehow. If you lose by a very narrow margin, Napstablook will instead give you 30 G to avoid disappointing the snail you were cheering on.
* DoWrongRight: Toriel points out to Asgore [[spoiler:before the BossFight with Asriel]] that instead of waiting for other monsters to kill seven humans and take their [=SOULs=], he could have [[spoiler:only killed one, crossed the barrier by combining the soul with his own, and gotten six more from the surface]]. He can't deny that she has a point.

* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** The demo's manual page about enemy turns has been ruined by "artless hooligans", according to Flowey. Turns out it was probably him, so he could trick you when you first meet him in-game. He can still change the manual after you finish the demo.
** If you put in [[spoiler:Flowey's]] name when you're naming the fallen child, he'll say "I already CHOSE that name," hinting that he was able to choose his own name rather than be born with it.
** The very intro of the game, the first thing one sees upon launching the game, has subtleties which show that [[spoiler:the child that falls in the intro is not the player character: the stripe pattern on Chara's shirt is visibly different from Frisk's and Chara falls onto bare ground whereas Frisk falls onto golden flowers]]. The intro also features [[spoiler:a silhouette of Asgore fighting. Anyone familiar with goat biology who happens to remember this image might figure out that Toriel is the queen far before other players]].
** Near the end of the Ruins, the player can find and equip a toy knife. Playing violently up to that point will also cause the narration to ask where the knives are in Toriel's kitchen. And with enough effort, you can indeed find one.
** If you talk to the Snowdin shopkeeper about the Ruins, she says, "unless you're a ghost or can burrow underground, it's impossible to get in". A miniboss fought there is a ghost. Sure enough, said ghost is the only monster besides Toriel that you can meet outside of the Ruins, or, more specifically, Waterfall. In addition, Flowey is also shown being able to burrow underground...
** The entire scene with the training dummy at the start carefully picks its descriptions to personify an inanimate object. Because it's actually the cousin of the Mad Dummy you fight later on.
** The last weapon you can get in the game is the Worn Dagger. [[spoiler:Its description reads "good for cutting weeds"... you know, like Flowey.]]
** Napstablook doesn't have a "damaged" sprite or sound effect. Your attacks aren't actually doing anything, and they're just reducing their HP out of politeness. After "depleting" their health, they leave, and because the battle accomplished nothing, the game tells you, word-for-word, that "You lost one experience point." Observant players will notice that the game specifically says "experience point" here, while normal battles call it EXP; extremely observant players will check their status menu and notice that they didn't actually lose any EXP. [[spoiler:This is because "Experience Points" don't exist; EXP, or "Execution Points", is just a term coined by monsters for how someone's ability to kill develops. You don't learn this until Sans's judgement at the other end of the game.]]
** In Toriel's home, there is a calendar with a date in the year 201X circled. [[spoiler:This is the date that Chara fell.]]
*** Said calendar is described as [[spoiler:old, hinting at the later reveal that 201X is not the year the game takes place]].
** Both Mettaton and Alphys drop hints that [[spoiler:Mettaton being a malicious killer is actually a lie to get you to like her]]. This includes [[spoiler:Mettaton drawing out and repeating lines at Alphys' cue which she frequently misses, Mettaton's robotic cough and stopping the 'firewall' before it hits you, him lengthening the bomb defusal time, one of his news ticker headlines [[LampshadeHanging lampshading]] the malfunctions and puzzle reactivation in Hotland[[labelnote:note]]"HOTLAND TECHNICAL MALFUNCTIONS ACCEDE AND RECEDE IN LINEAR PROGRESSION THROUGHOUT AREA"[[/labelnote]], frequently praising Alphys, and picking up her lines when she forgets them]].
** At certain points in the game, if you quickly return to the start of the room you're in, [[spoiler:you'll catch sight of Flowey quickly receding into the ground. He's been following you this entire time, foreshadowing his sudden appearance at the Barrier. You led him safely right to Asgore]].
** Loads towards the identity of the king and queen. [[spoiler:Toriel wears the Delta Rune on her dress, foreshadowing her place as royalty. A Froggit in the Ruins comments that everyone in the Ruins is "too intimidated" to talk to Toriel, hinting early on that she's more than just an ordinary citizen of the Underground. Asgore uses attacks ''identical'' to Toriel's, just more powerful. The royal castle is a one-to-one copy of Toriel's home.]] An incredibly subtle hint is the [[spoiler:description of Toriel's bed: "Definitely bigger than a twin-sized bed.", which would make this around a ''queen'' size. Returning in the walkaround section after the Pacifist ending (''after'' [[TheReveal the relevant revelation]]) will change the text to "Earlier you identified this as bigger than a twin bed. You realize now it's one more size above a double." [[StealthPun In other words, a queen.]]]]
** Flowey's theme is titled "Your Best Friend," which fits his FauxAffablyEvil nature. [[spoiler:This foreshadows his true identity as Asriel Dreemurr, prince of monsterkind, and best friend of the Fallen Child, with whom the player likely happens to share a name.]] On a Genocide run, [[spoiler:the Fallen Child possesses Frisk because of the player's influence, making the title "your best friend" even more literal]].
** One of the Froggits in the Ruins warns you that someday you might have to spare someone even if their name isn't yellow (an indicator that you can spare a monster). [[spoiler:This is the key to getting through the fight with Toriel without killing her.]]
** During the No Mercy run, when you first encounter Sans and don't laugh at his joke, he mutters to himself, "gee, lady, you really know how to pick em, huh..." At first it seems like he's talking to you, but really, he's talking about [[spoiler:Toriel, who asked him to spare any humans he encountered]]. Due to the nature of the run, however, you wouldn't discover this unless you had previously done a Pacifist run (though it's heavily implied in an optional conversation with Sans at the MTT resort, in any run where Papyrus was spared).
** When you're on the date with Papyrus, you find a joke book his and Sans's home. Inside the book is a quantum physics book, and inside that is another joke book, and inside that is another quantum physics book, [[UpToEleven at which point you decide to stop.]] Though it doesn't make sense out of context, this proves that [[spoiler:Sans uses the quantum physics book to grasp the concepts that allow him to use his time machine, and the multiple layers of books within books shows that he's able to send objects back in time, just like he did with the photo of the playable character and the [=NPCs=] after the post-pacifist true reset, as he was able to retrieve multiple copies of the same books. Then again, WordOfGod states that he was never able to fix the broken time machine (and never will be able to), so this symbolism may not quite work.]]
** In Papyrus's culinary art museum, a.k.a. his refrigerator, you'll find lots and lots of containers labeled "spaghetti" and a single, empty bag of chips. The only other place you can find chips is in the True Lab. This foreshadows Sans's position as a scientist and, by extension, his connection to Dr. W.D. Gaster.
** [[spoiler:When Sans warns you that you will have a bad time and disappears during the No Mercy run, it is a strong implication that Sans is self-aware and can access the same meta-concepts as the player, as no other character has been able to simply teleport out of nowhere and reappear at will.]] He can also do this during the Pacifist run, when you are trying to solve a puzzle at the bottom of a cliff and [[spoiler:Sans is at the bottom, waiting at both ends of the screen although we never see him move. He lampshades this by asking if you are following him, and stares straight at the player instead of at Frisk while he's idle]].
** The second time you meet him in the Ruins, Flowey refers to himself as "the prince of this world's future". [[spoiler:His true identity, Asriel Dreemurr, is the prince of monsterkind.]]
** When Sans is talking about his brother's "special attack", the term itself is highlighted in blue. [[spoiler:Actual blue, ''not'' the cyan color which Sans uses to talk about "stop signs", so by that logic this "special attack" is something you've never seen before. Cut to the actual boss fight with Papyrus, he reveals that he can subject the [=SOUL=] to gravity... by turning it blue.]]
** An odd retroactive example: during the battle with [[spoiler:Asriel, when you try to SAVE Papyrus and Sans, if you SAVE Papyrus first, he'll fall silent, but the attacks will keep coming, hinting that Sans is more powerful than he first appears]].
** At one point in the game, you can get an optional conversation with Sans that reveals Papyrus receives flattery, advice, encouragement, and predictions from Flowey. [[spoiler:This foreshadows the method Flowey used to trick everyone into coming together during the Pacifist route.]]
** When you first meet them, Monster Kid remarks that you must be a child since [[LampshadeHanging you're wearing]] [[VideoGame/{{EarthBound}} a striped shirt]]. [[spoiler:Turns out this character design convention is true for the First Child and Asriel.]]
** If you end Muffet's fight without killing her, she'll come to the conclusion that her beef with you is a big misunderstanding, and that she thought you hated spiders. She decides that the person who wanted her to steal your [=SOUL=] must have been referring to a ''different'' human in a striped shirt. [[spoiler:The First Child hates a lot of things. Or that either Flowey or Mettaton, both of whom change shape, is a dirty liar.]]
** The Monster Kidz Word Search, a simple gag in Snowdin, has a few subtle hints towards future events. Not only does it have the four seasons in it (see SeasonalBaggage below), but it also contains "skeletons", "mermaid", and "robot"; while you already know about the skeletons at this point (they're the ones who set up the word search, after all), this is far before you encounter Undyne (who isn't a mermaid, but is still a fish-based monster) and Mettaton (the only robot in the game).
** While poking around Alphys' lab, you can find a half-filled bag of dog food, and a stack of unopened letters from monsters like Froggit, Snowy, and Doggo. Nothing suspicious since there's dogs everywhere in this game and Alphys is an anti-social shut-in, right? If you explore the True Lab, these innocuous items become a lot less innocent — [[spoiler:Alphys uses dog food to feed the various Amalgamates sealed down there, and is so guilt-ridden about accidentally creating them that she can't bring herself to talk with the horrors' families]].
*** If you call Papyrus outside the lab (before befriending Undyne), Sans will suggest that [[ItMakesSenseInContext finding dogs in there]] wouldn't be unexpected, [[spoiler:possibly hinting at the nature of one of the amalgamates.]]
** In the MTT Resort, the fountain's plaque [[spoiler:says it was built in 201X and the Mettaton statue was added last week (that is, quite some time after 201X). This foreshadows the fact that 201X was decades (or possibly centuries) ago, rather than being the year the game takes place in]].
** If you speak with the various people inside the MTT Resort's restaurant, you learn that the Core can be configured in multiple ways, and that a new configuration has just been finished. [[spoiler:Alphys may have intended the Core to be configured specifically for the player, but the fact that the configuration doesn't match her map suggests that someone has messed with it. This turns out to be Mettaton's doing.]]
** Upon reaching the palace, if you keep going past the throne room entrance and instead head down some stairs, you'll find [[spoiler:a few coffins, one of which has whichever name you've input on it]]. The initial thought is that at least Asgore was kind enough [[spoiler:to prepare your burial for you]], but this line of thinking disappears when it's obvious [[spoiler:that he has no idea who you are. This foreshadows the Fallen Child's actions and the twist involving them]].
** Speech patterns can reveal a lot about an individual. For example, there are only two creatures in the underground [[spoiler:who greet people with the word "Howdy": Asgore Dreemurr and Flowey. In hindsight, this becomes quite an obvious hint that Flowey is actually Asriel Dreemurr, Asgore's son]]. The one time Papyrus [[spoiler:says "Howdy" is when he's secretly being led by Flowey]].
*** Additionally, two characters will greet you with the word "Greetings", [[spoiler:Toriel and Chara]].
** After realizing that you can't hurt each other, the Mad Dummy threatens to keep you trapped there by never ending the fight. [[spoiler:Guess what Sans tries at the end of your fight with him in a Genocide Run?]]
** There are multiple subtle things in the True Labs that foreshadow the plot twist that [[spoiler:Frisk is their own person, not just a player insert. At three different points, if you tell them to do something, they'll behave erratically or without your input. When you approach the shower, they move slower, showing they're afraid. When you try to laugh at the Snowdrake Amalgamate, they instead burst into tears (which is lampshaded, "what, you didn't do that?"). Lastly, after finishing each of the Dreemurr family home videos, they'll turn away from the TV like they know this isn't something they should be looking at.]]
** The theme that plays when [[spoiler:you're sparing Asgore is Asriel's theme. Guess who's secretly in the room right now]].
** After beating the game for the first time and sparing Flowey, he will start giving you hints on how to get the GoldenEnding. Pester him enough, and he will eventually tell you to [[spoiler:[[HorrifyingTheHorror stay away from "Smiley Trashbag" (aka Sans) for causing him 'more than his fair share of resets' before.]] Then you go for the [[KillEmAll No Mercy route]] and you find out that Flowey is being completely sincere...]]
** In Toriel's home, there are three different-sized chairs at the dining table. [[spoiler:This first foreshadows that a family of three used to live here: Toriel, Asgore, and Asriel.]]
** Toriel's diary is a record of bad puns, with the one we see being skeleton-themed. In the True Pacifist ending, it's revealed that Toriel and Sans held a pun-based friendship from each side of the door to the outside, so the jokes written down are her remembering the puns she exchanged with him.
** Toriel's bedroom contains a vase of prominent yellow flowers, [[spoiler:the first instance they are hinted to be connected to her family and son]].
** The top half of the Delta Rune and the prophecy associated with it is theorizes that either a pure savior or a dark angel holds the solution to monster freedom. [[spoiler:In the True Pacifist ending, both are true. The player is the savior who fights Asriel, the villain seeking monster freedom, who takes on an angelic form in his battle.]]
** In the news-report section of Hotland, Mettaton's blurbs [[spoiler:give hints that all of the objects to choose to report on are bombs]].
** If you continuously call Toriel after she gives you the cell phone and tells you to stay put (but not flirt with her), she'll suggest something for you to do, such as going to a pile of leaves and pretend to rule over it with an iron fist. [[spoiler:This hints towards her frustration against King Asgore.]]
** A set of ancient glyphs in the waterfall note that "Humans are unbelievably strong. It would take the SOUL of nearly every monster... ... just to equal the power of a single human SOUL." Sure enough, [[spoiler:at the end of the True Pacifist route, Asriel is able to break the barrier, which is supposed to require seven human souls, without killing you by using the combined power of the six souls collected already, plus the souls of every single monster in the underground.]]
** When Gerson describes the Delta Rune, he pauses for a moment before remembering that it's the emblem of the Kingdom of Monsters. Almost as if there was ''[[{{VideoGame/Deltarune}} another kingdom]]'' it'd be associated with...