Video Game / Undertale Red

"If you don't WANT to fight.....I'll have to make you."

A short Undertale fangame by Taxiderby consisting of a battle (and several possible routes thereof) against a Royal Guard named Red. Red has attacks based on her using her sword, along with a few unique tricks — for example, she will cut the battlefield into sections, reducing the area you have to move around in (and aiding in other attacks she uses along with it). While the game has Multiple Endings, there are two main routes — Pacifist and Genocide (along with several neutral routes).

In the pacifist route, Red attacks you because she's angry about you befriending everyone you meet, since that means they'll all be heartbroken when Asgore inevitably kills you. ACTing won't do any good for all of the fight except the very beginning, but if you don't attack her, she will eventually be unable to deal the final blow, admitting that you befriending her worked.

In genocide, Red is fought along with two Royal Guardians, which she gained command of after the player (implicitly) killed the guardsmen previously responsible for them. Red wonders if the player remembers how many monsters they've killed, since they seem to be the sort of horrible person who keeps track, but tells the player not to answer, since any breath they take is one too many.

Tropes present in Undertale Red include:

• Angry Cheek Puff: Red will often do this when she is agitated.
• Badass Cape: Red wears on in the form of a red cloak. It even has a fancy collar and bowtie with a jewel in the center!
• Beyond the Impossible: The player character's encounter with Red is framed as this. Red, Undyne and Flowey all imply that the player character is somewhere that is impossible to get to.
• Blade Spam: Red's primary method of attacking using her sabre to repeatedly strike at them in every direction ranging from small slices to big slashes.
• Broken Faceplate: You can actually shatter her Expressive Mask should you reject her offer of mercy.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: In the Genocide route, Red calls the player out for this for implicitly killing some of Red's friends in the Royal Guard.
• Crossover Cameo: Red makes a cameo in Undertale Yellow, appearing in Oasis Valley as someone who had been apprehended many times by the Royal Guard as they kept mistaking her for a human. When Red complains about this, Martlet tells her she could sign up for the Royal Guard herself, as entry into it was easy, which Red admits sounds interesting.
• The Dead Have Names: Red tells you in the Genocide battle that the guards who previously commanded the Royal Guardians (who were implicitly killed by the player) had names and were her friends.
• Defiant to the End: In the Genocide route, when Red is beaten down to the last bit of her health bar she'll still try to attack. This is represented by a single crosshair attack slowly and shakily being executed. And if you aren't on a No-Damage Run her final speech has her stating with confidence that eventually some monster will kill you. At least, she is confident about it until the player character begins laughing.
• Dramatic Irony: In Red's final speech on the Genocide route she'll state that eventually, a monster will kill you and that you are not above death. The player character ends up laughing at this.
• Expressive Mask: Red usually wears a mask over her face that can make some rather childish emotes. However, it only becomes clear that it is a mask should you decide to strike her in the face. In which case, the mask will then crack and then shatter.
• Flower Motif: Red seems to have an association with dandelions as she is first encountered in a dark area that is filled with drifting dandelion seeds and they are frequently mentioned during her battle.
• The Gloves Come Off: If you reject Red's offer of mercy on the way to the Genocide ending, she'll lose any moral compunctions about fighting you and decides to go all out to survive.
  Red: I was really worried, you know. Worried that you wouldn't want to fight. Worried you only did so to protect yourself. Worried that you'd be kind to me. I'm not worried anymore. You only look human, don't you?
• Interface Screw: Red slashes the battlefield into sections, essentially making the bullet board smaller.
• In the Hood: Red's most iconic feature is her curved hood which shrouds most of her face in darkness.
• Last-Second Chance: In the Genocide route, Red spares you early on. If you hit her after that, all bets are off.
• Little Red Fighting Hood: This is what Red is.
• Master Swordswoman: Red has shown in her fight to be extremely proficient with her blade that she can slash and stab at very ridiculous speeds.
• No-Damage Run: As with any official or fanmade Undertale works, it is possible to get through the entire Genocide or Pacifist fight without getting hit. If you do this on the Genocide route, then Red's Defiant to the End speech will turn into her lamenting her uselessness since she fought with everything she had and you're walking away unscathed.
• Nonstandard Game Over: On the Pacifist fight, if you keep cracking jokes from the start of the battle and do nothing else, Red gets offended that you won't take this fight seriously and twirls out of the screen. This ends the game without any real ending occurring.
• Not So Invincible After All: If you defeat her in a Genocide route but took damage during the fight, she taunts you with this. But when the player character laughs at her in response, she becomes horrified and asks "What Are You".
• Optional Boss: If she she were a part of the main game, she would most likely be this.
• Red Is Heroic: Yes she is.
  • Red Is Violent: She can be if you get on her nerves.
• Repeating So the Audience Can Hear: Some of Red's responses indicate how the player character is behaving without the player's input. For example, she asks why the character is laughing at the end of the Genocide Run. Or after the Pacifist Fight, she repeats the player character saying that they heard that Mew Mew Kissy Cutie 2 was terrible.
• Rose-Haired Sweetie: Some official art by Taxibery reveals that Red has pink hair, which fits well with her sweet nature once you get to know her better.
• Royal Rapier: Red's weapon of choice, which she uses to slice at her foe with swiftful ease.
• Safety in Indifference: Red clearly wants to respond well to the player being nice to her, but attacks them because she doesn't want to get attached to someone who'll inevitably die to Asgore.
• Saw Blades of Death: Some of Red's attacks use saw blades that roll across the bullet board.
• Saw "Star Wars" Twenty-Seven Times: After a Pacifist Fight, talking to Red enough times will make her admit that she watches Mew Mew Kissy Cutie 2 every morning.
  Red: Okay, so! Are you familiar with... Mew Mew Kissy Cutie 2? EVERY MORNING I open-palm slam a VHS of that into the slot and I just get WAAAAY into it. Like, the addition of fight scenes was REALLY NEEDED, and the new character, she's a BIIIT shoe-horned in for my tastes, but Mew Mew definitely needed a foil?? Huh...? You heard invokedit's terrible?? WELL, I don't know what kind of stuck-up NERD told you that... whoever they are, they gotta take off their NOSTALGIA GOGGLES and get a GOOD WHIFF of the SEQUEL QUALITY! Because you... smell with... your eyeballs???
• Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: Should you repeatedly joke around during her first phase, Red will realize that you aren't taking her seriously, and will float away out of pure annoyance.
• Shut Up, Kirk!: If you repeatedly try to talk to Red, she will snap at you for being so chatty in the middle of the fight. And then, she decides to up the ante..
• Throw Down the Bomblet: Red will start lobbing bombs at you which will detonate and deal significant Splash Damage after a few seconds. She will often pair them with slicing the bullet board to increase the likelihood of you being hit by them.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Red admits that Cinnamon Bunnies are her favorite if you give her one after a Pacifist Fight.
• Video Game Caring Potential: You can be nice to Red, ask her about her day, and try to make friends, despite Red's disbelief about you doing so in the middle of a battle. Doing so will result in Red eventually giving up and admitting that you're a "lean, mean, befriending machine".
  • After a Pacifist Fight, using food items will cause the player character to split it with Red.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: On the other hand, you can also betray her after gaining her trust. In the Genocide route, the player is said to have already done this, as they killed the previous users of the Royal Guardians, who were Red's friends.
• What the Hell Are You?: If you're on the Genocide route but not on a No-Damage Run then Red will defiantly state that even if she failed some other monster will be able to kill you and you are not above death. The player character begins to laugh at this which horrifies Red, causing her to ask what they are before she dies.
• What the Hell, Player?: In the Genocide battle, she'll call the player out on their actions (not actually taken in the fangame, but in Undertale's canon genocide route).
• You Bastard!: Red in the Genocide battle will call you out on several things — going for the Genocide run and fighting her despite her sparing you (so you weren't doing it in self-defense), killing the royal guardsmen who were her friends, and killing everyone you meet to begin with.

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