Ever since Undertale released, one of its main characters has remained largely overlooked, if not outright despised. There are those who find her obnoxious due to the unskippable text messages. And those who see her as a horrible monster due to the Determination experiments. Some fanworks even kill her off for shock value, while placing less significant characters like Gaster in the spotlight instead. Ultimately, Alphys is both unappreciated and misunderstood, and in this video I'd like to give a thorough analysis of her character, her past, and perhaps demonstrate why she deserves a second look. To start things off, I think it's crucial that we look at Alphys' past. One of the earliest examples of this comes from Bratty and Catty's shop dialogue. As you can see here, Alphys used to live close by, acting as an older sister to the two trash loving duo and sharing her favorite places to find garbage. Even this early on, her love of human media and especially anime shines through. However, she eventually stopped meeting with the girls and the three of them drifted apart. Around this time, or perhaps sometime later, Shyren's sister fell down. Back then, Mettaton had yet to meet Alphys and was a simple ghost with dreams of stardom who held his friends and family close. He hosted a human fanclub in hopes of finding others like himself, but only one monster showed up: Alphys. Despite clashing tastes in cartoons, the two hit it off, and eventually Alphys drew up concepts for Mettaton's dream body so that he could truly be himself. It's unclear if this body was the initial box form or the Mettaton NEO form, or even EX, although if Deltarune and Swatch's shop is any indication, it was probably NEO. But Bratty and Catty deliver more information on the subject. They say that due to her crush on Asgore, Alphys wanted to impress him. he showed Mettaton off, and Asgore saw the potential of a soul-powered robot and promptly appointed her royal scientist. This is a pretty big deal, because the Gaster followers specifically mention that Asgore took a long time to find a replacement. Though to the masses, Mettaton appeared to simply be a superstar robot built by Alphys, some noticed how he treated Alphys with a certain familiarity, like an old friend. Since Shyren's sister had fallen down before Mettaton met Alphys, it's likely this all happened very fast. So with that, let's continue to the Determination experiments... In this section, I will present all of the True Lab reports in chronological order to paint a clearer sequence of events. I feel like this is important, as the game presents them in a more disjointed fashion, and this has led to some mistakenly believing that Alphys only wrote some of the reports and Gaster or Sans wrote the rest. I won’t deny that Sans could have some involvement or awareness of the experiments, given that Alphys and Sans show a clear familiarity in the pacifist epilogue. Plus, one of the Papyrus calls in Hotland has Sans talk about the dogfood in the lab and hint at the True Lab's existence. Add that to Sans' talk of "our reports" showing anomalies in the timeline, and, well, he clearly had to be working with someone, and Alphys does have a vested interest in other worlds, if the MTT quiz is any indication. However, too often people in this fandom try to strip Alphys of her agency so they can give Gaster her mistakes and accomplishments. It's a rather frustrating thing, because if you play Undertale and never look into the fun events, it's likely you'll never hear of Gaster, and the game's story functions just fine. Plus, if you look at the reports in chronological order, you’ll find the differences in grammar serve a purpose in conveying character rather than conveying a separate character. So, let's get started. Asgore asked Alphys to research SOUL power in order to find a way to free monsters. We can confirm this IS her writing the report, as it lines up with her monologue at the end of True Lab. Due to the nature of the barrier and monster SOULs, Alphys had to research other means to replicate that seventh human SOUL. Alphys' first snag was the inability to simply take souls from dead monsters. As she stated, it requires an incredible power, and if you look at the Pacifist finale, Flowey is indeed able to extract every monster soul with the power of six human ones. It’s a nice bit of foreshadowing here, though not very applicable to Alphys when she is a monster herself. While this doesn’t tell us much about the experiments, these tapes provided information on the royal family’s past. With the reveal that Chara had planned their own death and that their plan cost Asriel his life, it’s understandable that she’d want to keep them away from Asgore to spare him more pain. The blueprints are a source of debate. Many claim that Alphys used blueprints from Gaster, citing similarities between the DT Extractor and Gaster blasters. However, it is worth noting that the DT Extractor bears a stronger resemblance to Gyftrot as well as this cut artwork showing what a monster with a human soul allegedly looked like. The DT Extractor's design could be a holdover form that, as its likeness also reflects Photoshop Flowey. Sans' workshop has blueprints that either have strange symbols or bad handwriting. Symbols would suggest possible wingdings, while Alphys is shown repeatedly to poor handwriting. Ultimately, we just don't know. Those blueprints could be for the broken machine in Sans' lab as well, and while Deltarune does have its own ties to Determination, the answers there are inconclusive. However, we do know that Alphys can turn a phone into a jetpack, so the blueprints she referred to could be of her own design, or at the very least, she could have made modifications to the original concepts if Gaster did conceptualize the device. Remember that Shyren’s sister had fallen down before Alphys and Mettaton met. This means that the experiments happened VERY soon after Mettaton got his box body. We also know that Snowdrake’s Mother is presumably dead by the time Undertale takes place. Later, we would learn that both she and Shyren's sister became part of the amalgamates, so this is another bit of foreshadowing. These reports show the process Alphys went through in the early stages of the experiments. Her goal was to inject determination into the bodies so that when the monsters died, their souls might be of similar strength to humans or at least strong enough that they could collectively make up the difference. She selected a golden flower as a symbolic gesture and because a flower is a being that is neither human nor monster, thus able to utilize both types of SOULs. At this point, everything seemed to be going smoothly. Alphys' entries are written with proper grammar
and with a professional air that has led some to believe they were not penned by her, or that the lowercase entries are not. More on that debate later. For now, let's continue… It's worth noting that in the Waterfall trash dump, there is a bed of golden flowers. Given that Alphys frequented the dump, this ties her directly to this entry. This entry also is undeniably Alphys, as she was the one working on Mettaton's body, and her tendency to sweat is... rather in character. These entries are all Alphys at her lowest point. She's not putting in the effort for proper grammar and capitalization. She's lapsing into guilt and depression. It's definitely Alphys who penned these reports because of the mentions of Mettaton's body, and the prior reports are also hers due to them following up on the earlier entries. Some will point out that Toby wouldn’t use differing writing styles for the same character, but this is already debunked when you look at her letter outside of the true lab elevator, which reads: Plus, even her texts aren’t all lowercase. Sometimes she uses capitalization and sometimes she doesn’t. And with Sans occasionally speaking with completely normal grammar, this argument falls apart. And when you look at the following reports... When things seem to be back on track, the grammar is polished once more. She seems happier and calmer. And do note that she used a smiley face here, which is consistent with many of her text messages. It's a false sense of hope, however, given what would come next… Here I'd like to take a brief pause to discuss Entry Number 17. A lot of people know of Gaster's entry, which is part of what has led people to believe he penned at least some of these reports, but disregarding that the speech patterns do not match up… Alphys has an Entry 17 that went unused. It says: Just like the other entries at this point in the timeline, it is in lowercase, showing a consistency with her emotional state. The reason this was cut was likely because of her monologue, where she explains this information anyway. Eventually, Flowey gained consciousness, undergoing multiple resets as he struggled with his lack of compassion. At the start of the game, we are in a timeline where most NPCs do not remember him. Viewing these entries in order and combining them with Alphys’ final monologue shows there’s no doubt that she wrote all of these reports and did the experiments herself. She recaps what the reports said- Asgore asked her to study soul power, she discovered determination, but monster bodies couldn’t sustain themselves and eventually melted due to the lack of physicality. And so the Determination experiments came to a close, an utter failure. Alphys received many letters from the families of the monsters she experimented on. Snowdrake's father has already assumed his wife is dead. In the aftermath, Alphys went to the dump, likely contemplating suicide. But when she met Undyne, everything changed. While Alphys' guilt and depression remained, and she refused to reveal the truth, Undyne gave her a reason to keep living. Over time, the two would develop feelings for each other, but those feelings would go unspoken for the time being. Before the game started, she also stationed cameras throughout the underground, and she also had a hand in creating Hotland's many puzzles. In fact, she made a smaller version of the colored tile maze for Papyrus as well, though he used Undyne as a proxy to get her to do so. She worked with Undyne when making the puzzles for Waterfall and also told her that seagrass is an endangered species, though she'd later reveal that she just used it to make ice cream. Alphys also shared anime and manga with Undyne, lying about their historical importance so she could be close to her. These actions set in motion the events of the game… When you first enter the lab in Hotland, everything is quiet and ominous. A computer monitor tracks your movements. It’s too dark to really investigate. Then the lights turn on, and out comes Alphys. When she first appears, she’s surprised, anxious, and very, very awkward. She speaks with a stutter and sheepishly explains how she monitored Frisk throughout the game, first as an enemy, but as the game progressed, she grew to value them and wishes to guide them through Hotland. This applies to all neutral routes, for even if you kill Undyne, she forgot to watch that fight. It’s only in the Genocide run that she witnessed Undying’s downfall… And instead worked to evacuate monsterkind. But more on that later. However, while she wishes to help, she warns of a robot named Mettaton, allegedly an entertainment robot given anti-human features. She claims she tried to disable those features, but something went wrong, and just in time, the room shakes and then… In comes Mettaton, big, boisterous, and ready to put on a flashy quiz show. The only catch: if you get the questions wrong, you die. …Except that’s not actually true. No matter how badly you fail, you will never game over in this battle. In fact, if you deliberately take damage, HP locks at 1, and the quiz speeds along to the final question, which is a tactic many speedrunners use. That’s not the only suspicious aspect, though. If you look closely, Alphys’ hands take the shape of the correct answers for all but a few of the questions. She seems to know exactly what kinds of questions Mettaton, even going on a big fangirl rant once he brings up the dating sim Mew Mew Kissy cutie. This is one of our earliest glimpses of Alphys’ nerdy interests, although it’s not the first. Prior to her battle, Undyne mentions human history books, and on a merciful route will describe giant robots and flowery swordswomen. She’ll also talk about this in her hangout, and how she and Alphys worked together to make a giant, ‘historically accurate’ sword. But nerding aside, Mettaton decides to flip the script by asking about Alphys’ love life… much to the scientist’s flustered chagrin. If you pick Undyne, you learn about how she names programming variables after her, writes about her in the margins of her notes, and writes domestic fanfiction about them together. Since I picked this in my first playthrough, this led quite naturally into the events of the true pacifist ending, but the fun part about this quiz is that there is no wrong answer for her crush. If you choose Asgore instead, you learn that Alphys has a huge crush on him, calls him Mr. Dreamy, and she outfitted Mettaton with combat weaponry as a means to impress him. We get further confirmation of her crush from Bratty and Catty, who also note that a robot like Mettaton is super relevant to Asgore’s interests. That’s right, Alphys is bisexual. Good for her! Choosing ‘the human’ yields an exasperated response from both Mettaton and Alphys. She doesn’t have a crush on Frisk, but she did grow very invested in their journey, and even backseat gaming by complaining when they go the wrong way. But I think the “Unknown” option is most fascinating in its implications. Here, Mettaton talks about how Alphys has a vested interest in alternate universes, which he doesn’t take seriously at all, yet Alphys is adamant exist out there. I find this really funny, because the fandom makes Sans the multiverse guy, when Alphys is right here. A shame, really, because I do think there’s interesting stuff to explore here. But regardless of answers, Mettaton flees the scene, as the quiz has no dramatic tension. Alphys confirms that the question was unscripted, which has interesting implications. But before you can dwell on it, she offers to exchange phone numbers before seeing how outdated Frisk’s phone is and… immediately swiping it to do some upgrades. But she doesn’t stop at texting. By far the more exciting function of the phone occurs when you open the menu, and... The phone comes with dimensional storage, which is a hugely impressive feat of engineering. And later on… There’s that jetpack chase during the MTT cooking show. Not to mention… The ability to shoot lasers. With this in mind, and with how fast Alphys works, she’s no slouch when it comes to technology, and it’s a shame she’s so overlooked in favor of a character who has no onscreen appearances. I get the allure of Gaster from a mysterious lore perspective, but contrary to popular belief, you can do cool stuff with Alphys. But I digress. While Alphys shimmies off to the ‘bathroom,’ you’re allowed to poke around the lab. You can actually see her behind the elevator door, too. The first floor contains some interesting characterization, like how her work desk is messy and piled with ramen bowls, how she keeps instant noodles in her fridge, and the large bag of dog food by her desk. On the top floor, you can find shelves packed with manga labeled as history books, which ties into Undyne’s earlier comments. There’s also a peculiar machine that pumps out pink goop. Undyne really likes the stuff, and it’s worth noting that the machine uses sea grass to produce the treat. Alphys states that this sea grass is endangered and needs protection, but later in her date… She admits she just uses it for this ice cream. Her desk shows blueprints for Mettaton, a big saw, and a Mew Mew poster. Her wardrobe mostly contains labcoats, but there is a single dress which also foreshadows the date. Her lamp has a cute fish pattern, alluding to her crush on Undyne, and the cube… is her bed, which can fold into an easy to draw shape. Interestingly, this wasn’t always the case. The artbook shows concepts of a more detailed bed, as well as a fancier computer terminal, which would later be repurposed in Inverted Fate for Undyne’s security feed. Just some fun trivia there! But back to Alphys, the Mettaton poster provides some really nice allusions as well, by showing that Alphys made his dreams come true. It’s a very sweet gesture that shows that, at one point, the two were very close. Once you leave the lab, however, the most controversial part of Alphys’ characterization rears its head: the texts. What’s meant to be added insight to her characterization certainly has its drawbacks, as the texts interrupt gameplay and are unskippable even on subsequent playthroughs. Personally, though, I think they add to her charm. Through the texts we learn just how anxious Alphys is, struggling to make phone calls and send messages to the human. As someone who struggles with phone calls and reaching out to people, I personally related a lot to this aspect of her character. In a way, she’s one of the more grounded members of UT’s cast. But Alphys eventually does start making calls. She tries instructing Frisk about upcoming puzzles and hazards, all while posting that she managed to pull through and segueing about Undyne asking about the weather. She fusses when she forgot to give clear instructions and then posts a ‘selfie’ that’s just a garbage can with filters, showing her self-doubt in an ironic coat of paint. With the upcoming puzzles, she recommends the order of paths to follow and even hacks the lasers to allow access to the leftmost path. She loses confidence in Frisk's abilities, and soon tries to give advice, only to find out that they've already been solved and gets a little upset about this. This will be a recurring thing later, and also acts as additional foreshadowing for things to come. After all, she seems to have it all planned out, doesn’t she? She even uses an excuse of vegan viewers as a reason for MTT not to use a human SOUL, ignoring the eggs used in the batter, and how fitting it is that the phone jetpack has just enough fuel for this oddly specific section of the broadcast. In the news segment, she reveals she equipped Frisk’s phone with a means to diffuse the bombs and then, at the end, stops the big explosion from going off. Allegedly this is due to her “hacking skills.” The tile maze teased during Snowdin makes its proper comeback here, and Frisk is tasked with completing it before getting incinerated. The fire stops, however, and Frisk instead must face Mettaton. Once again, Alphys shows her forward thinking by equipping Frisk with the means to fight back via their phone. A single shot sends Mettaton packing, but it’s all rather convenient, isn’t it? Alphys seems genuinely excited to have someone to talk to. Someone who appreciates her. She even gets ahead of herself and starts geeking out about her favorite anime and nearly spoiling the entire thing. Even still, despite the suspiciously convenient cop outs with Mettaton’s TV shows, she seems innocent enough, and like the first true ally in the entire game. But something is amiss. As you approach the CORE, strange figures appear. This is on top of Muffet’s earlier attempts to kill Frisk for the right price. Alphys has no idea what’s going on. And when you reach the CORE, Alphys tries giving instructions, only for those instructions to fail. Alphys acts like this isn’t supposed to happen. She freaks out and then she… goes quiet. In truth, it’s because everything in Hotland was carefully orchestrated by Alphys to makie her seem cool, competent, and helpful. She wanted the human to come to enjoy her company and appreciate her so much, they would think twice about leaving the Underground. A lot of people find this very selfish of her, and there’s no disputing that, but I think it’s also important to understand Alphys’ feelings too. This is someone who, up until this point, has dealt with the trauma of trying and failing to do the right thing, only for it to blow up in her face. She’s fallen into the depths of depression and even contemplated taking her own life. In some neutral endings, she does just that. We'll talk about it more in depth later, but If Mettaton or Undyne die, Alphys is strongly implied to have died. This pushes Undyne into a deep depression in some endings, and in the Mettaton ending, pushes him to the extreme dictatorship, as he’s lost his closest friend. It’s true that Alphys used Mettaton to put on these shows, and that’s not okay, but I think it’s also important to consider how Mettaton treated her. She made his body for him, but as soon as he made it big, he stopped talking to her outside of asking for updates on the EX form. There’s a lot of unresolved baggage between these two, and Mettaton going behind her back to hire mercenaries despite knowing how much this means to her also isn’t great. He claims it’s to prevent Asgore from waging war on humanity, but regardless of intention, it’s a messy situation all around. Even so, Alphys does still provide genuine help to Frisk by instructing them to flip Mettaton’s switch. And in the end, she does come clean about her intentions and how it requires a boss monster soul to leave the Underground. She is deeply remorseful and regretful. This is someone who KNOWS when she messes up. She doesn’t try to deny her wrongdoing, which is another reason why I take issue with people acting like Alphys is this awful, cruel person when she’s just a victim of tragic circumstances. In the neutral ending, Alphys’ fate changes depending on a few key factors. Assuming you’ve gotten the ‘best’ neutral ending, Alphys is alive and well, still working as the royal scientist with Undyne as her lab partner albeit with heightened supervision from Toriel. Assuming you’ve done a relatively passive neutral run on your first playthrough, Flowey will reveal the key to your happy ending: Alphys. Indeed, even if you’ve befriended Papyrus and Undyne beforehand, there’s one final piece to the puzzle. So you backtrack, get Undyne’s letter- a confession to Alphys, thereby following up on hints from earlier in the game. At the time, Alphys is shut up in her lab. Indeed, even if you backtrack before fighting Asgore, she is unreachable. Even when you slide Undyne’s letter under her door, she’s not exactly in the greatest of spirits. She mistakes it for another one of the many letters she’s received in the past, but there is a key difference. Despite her anxiety, she admits she can’t keep hiding forever. She reads the letter, opens the door, but takes the letter as a joke… And then assumes the letter came from Frisk, which leads to a wacky misunderstanding. She still feels terrible for how she treated Frisk, and the whole situation is very awkward for her, but she’s very apologetic and does at least want to make them happy, which leads to their… “date.” Though really, it’s more or less her awkwardly fumbling as she only prepared for a date with Undyne. What’s striking about this moment is that it once again showcases Alphys’ nerdy inclinations. She talks of affection statistics, as if she’s a visual novel character. She’s stockpiled tons of gifts in preparation for this moment, even though she lacked the courage to come clean. Additionally, her ideal icebreaker is asking about anime, and her ideal dating spot is… the dump. It’s all very quirky and very Alphys, but there’s also a deep sentimental value to the dump that further shows that she really wants to date Undyne. Appropriately, Undyne also shows up soon after, showing just how well the two mesh. They’re on the same wavelength, and Undyne even admits she wants to handle the confession herself. Ultimately, when Undyne runs off, Alphys comes clean, admitting to her feelings, but also showing a great lack of self-confidence. She doesn’t feel worthy of Undyne’s affection, when Undyne is this cool, heroic, and brave person, while Alphys has repeatedly hurt people and lied to others. She feels guilty for essentially leading Undyne on, using her lies about human ‘history’ to get closer to Undyne. She’s scared of what will happen if Undyne finds the truth. Worth noting, though, is that if you choose lying, she will initially see lying as a way to spare Undyne from a painful truth. It’s her gut inclination to maintain the illusion but, on her own, realizes that it’d hurt even more if Undyne found out through other means. When this choice is selected, Alphys shows remarkable growth in opts to be honest. She just needs help finding the right confidence to get the ball rolling. This holds true even if you suggest she tell the truth. Choosing “tell her the truth” leads to Alphys showing similar reservations about honesty, while admitting that she alters her behavior to be more appealing to others. However, like with the other dialogue choice, she does come to realize the importance of honesty in moving forward with Undyne. The only problem is, how does she do it? How can she build the confidence to speak her mind after so much time? The answer: Larping. What’s funny about this is it once again uses Alphys’ nerdy interests and character quirks to showcase her development and push her forward. It brings some fun and comedy after the harrowing neutral ending and before the spooky True Lab. There’s some really funny variations, too, based on whether you act as Undyne, act as Alphys, and give serious or comedic prompts. Being more forward and flirty leads to a lot of awkwardness from her, like calling her cute and Alphys brushing off Undyne’s prior flirting as purely platonic. This shows her lack of self-esteem once again, as she struggles with the idea that someone may genuinely find her attractive. The normal dialogue responses causes Alphys to start admitting the truth, revealing just how special Undyne makes her feel by listening to her nerdy interests and threatening to beat up people who get in her way, until her emotions overwhelm her and her confession leads to her freaking out and shouting about her passionate feelings. The silly response yields something similar, with her humoring the pretend kiss and rolling with it before once again yelling her feelings and desires. If you have her play Undyne and try to coax her into telling the truth, Alphys projects hard, assuming Undyne will be disappointed in her, refuse her advances, and then starts vividly describing Undyne’s beautiful lips and passionate embrace. If you make ‘Alphys’ kiss undyne, Alphys acts like Undyne would resist at first… before talking about how Alphys learned sweet romantic maneuvers from video games. Ultimately, all roads lead to Alphys freaking the heck out and Undyne showing up before a more genuine, tender confession takes place after more wacky misunderstandings. She reveals all the lies, like how she uses seaweed to make ice cream and it isn’t an endangered species, how her ‘history’ books and films are just cartoons and comics, and sometimes she avoids phone calls just to eat frozen yogurt and hang out in her PJ’s. Undyne responds calmly, while Alphys continues to fret due to her insecurities. Undyne hugs her, comforts her, and then… slam dunks her in a trash can before reassuring her. Yes, her interests are nerdy crap, but she’s passionate! She’s analytical! Her passion makes Undyne happy, and she doesn’t want Alphys to lie anymore on her behalf. She wants to help Alphys gain some self-confidence… By having Papyrus train her. But, smartly, this isn’t an instant fix. While Alphys’ training seems to help, in the end, she still has misgivings. Papyrus even picks up on her distress and encourages a trip to the lab, where a note reveals that while Alphys appreciates the help, her problems can’t just disappear. She wants to do better, she wants to stop being afraid, but in order to do that, she has to face her own mistakes. Crucially, she does instruct Frisk on how to find her and learn the truth for themself. She even leaves clues for how to maneuver the lab. And during True Lab, the history of the DT experiments comes to light. Crucially, however, the true lab romp ends with Alphys not only explaining everything to Frisk, but also resolving to do right by the amalgamates. She plans to return them to their families and come clean to everyone. That’s why it bothers me when people act like Alphys is a terrible person for her mistakes. What she did absolutely was inhumane, but it’s really important to look at the context. She was under a lot of pressure due to Asgore’s expectations. Asgore never checked in on her work, and in the neutral ending you get if you beat Asgore without doing true lab, she specifically notes how Toriel is a lot more watchful than Asgore and checks in periodically… all while finding Toriel very attractive. She also works to find a way out of the Underground in this neutral ending, even if she’s not sure how. Alphys’ story subverts a lot of mad scientist tropes. Rather than being a tale of hubris, it’s a tragic tale of someone’s desire to do the right thing, but falling into despair when things go wrong and finding the strength to rise again and atone for her mistakes. She didn’t mean to make the amalgamates, and while she could have released them long ago, she was terrified, overwhelmed, and didn’t know what to do. She carried a huge weight on her shoulders, but what matters is that she overcame her grief and set things right. The monsters are happy to be reunited with their loved ones despite the amalgamation, and the future for them is looking bright. Even broken families like Snowdrake’s are on the mend. Her Lost Soul segment reinforces her character journey as well, as reminding her of her value and boosting her confidence allows her to show a little self-love. Besides, it’s not as though she doesn’t face consequences. It’s revealed in the Pacifist epilogue that she’s relieved of her position as royal scientist by Toriel. While I’d argue Toriel doesn’t really have the authority to do this after she stepped down as queen, and this isn't a neutral ending where she takes over... it is true that despite her intentions, Alphys did keep the families waiting for many years. I also think that there’s a positive spin here- it’s possible that Toriel removed her from her position out of concern for Alphys’ mental health, as the experiments coupled with Asgore’s negligence left lingering scars, and she and Alphys do seem to be on friendly terms if you talk to them in the epilogue. I see so much bad faith criticism of Alphys, comparing her to the likes of Shou Tucker from Fullmetal Alchemist, but what people critically fail to understand is that her intention was never to make amalgamates. She was given the bodies by Asgore, comatose and dying monsters, and tasked with finding a way to make monster souls stronger to prevent another human casualty. The research was unprecedented, and while her nerves prompted her to inject excessive DT, and while it’s true she could have been honest about what happened, I feel like most of the people who criticize her harshly are doing so without compassion or understanding of what it’s like to deal with mental illness. Anxiety makes things incredibly scary. Even simple tasks like making a phone call or asking for something are magnified to a degree that is hard to put into words. Obviously, it’s important to manage anxiety, but from personal experience as someone whose life is significantly less traumatic than Alphys’, I cannot say in good conscience that I would handle it much better. Besides, there are other sides to Alphys that are often overlooked, so for that, let’s talk about the neutral endings and Genocide content. Alphys, in many neutral endings, gets by. But if you kill Undyne or Mettaton, as I said before, things take a tragic turn. At first, it seems innocuous. She makes excuses- like rebuilding Mettaton. He’s just a robot. But those who’re privy to the true story behind MTT know better. This isn’t just a machine. This is one of her dearest friends, and he’s gone. No amount of repairs will ever fix the body left behind. Still, she carries on like she would in a more passive run, revealing the truth about the barrier. You’d be forgiven for believing she’ll carry on like she would in the normal pacifist ending… But the betrayed Undyne ending branch reveals the harrowing truth. Alphys has disappeared. Undyne has fallen into a deep depression, believing Alphys to be dead. The implications are deeply troubling, given her past suicidal inclinations, and it’s likely that in this ending, Alphys has taken her own life. And unlike the betrayed Undyne ending if you kill any other monster, Undyne lacks the resolve to swear revenge. Revenge won’t bring Alphys or Asgore back. This is by far Undyne at her most dejected, and it goes to show how significant Alphys is to the lives of our main cast. This also applies if you killed Undyne. In the starkly dystopian Mettaton ending, Mettaton reveals that he built a statue in her honor. Then the music cuts, and he admits he wasn’t the best for her. He intended to apologize for being a bad friend and ask for her help in ruling the kingdom, but like with the betrayed Undyne ending, she was nowhere to be seen. It’s entirely possible that Alphys’ disappearance sparked Mettaton’s downward spiral in this ending, turning the Underground into an egocentric, totalitarian state. Although, it's hard to say for sure, and it could simply be a matter of leadership expanding his ego. This brief moment of reflection shows that he’s still hurting, but soon deflects by making it all about himself. But, more troublingly, it once again shows that without one of the people Alphys holds dearest, she simply… vanishes, never to be seen again. With this precedent, you would think that the genocide run would feature a similar tragedy for Alphys, but it’s quite the opposite. As previously mentioned, Alphys consciously watched Undyne’s fight in this run, and was tasked with telling Asgore to use the human souls. When you reach Hotland, it’s revealed that she’s started evacuating monsters, rendering her completely unseen. However, there are traces if you know where to look. If you choose to extend Muffet’s fight rather than oneshotting her, she reveals that Alphys asked her to evacuate with the spiders and planned to close off Hotland entirely if Muffet fled. Muffet’s refusal to flee is what allowed the genocide run to continue into Hotland, as her stubborn pride as a spider made her reluctant to move. She shows little remorse for this, too, instead lamenting that she didn’t bake Alphys instead. But other than these instances, Alphys is rather MIA, unless you abort the run. Doing so unlocks a fascinating neutral ending: the Queen Alphys ending. This ending is quiet. No background music. Alphys outright states that she hates you, but admits that despite everything, she was forced to take charge and become a better person. She started off terrified and withdrawn, begging for the end, but once Undyne called, she realized she needed to take action, thereby evacuating everyone, confronting her mistakes, and in exchange, was hailed as a hero. Despite her anxiety, she’s become queen and is doing her best as leader, but the grief from losing everyone still clings to her, and she ends the call on a chilling comment, admitting she should have killed you when she had the chance. By far, this ending demonstrates Alphys at her best. It shows that she can rise to the occasion and become heroic in her own right. She’s such a complex and nuanced character, and it's heartbreaking that the Gaster hype and fanlore has grown so huge that it eclipses one of THE most important characters in Undertale. Her choices brought about Flowey, and by extension, allowed monsters to go free. By all means, explore Gaster in your fanworks, as the open canvas currently invites a ton of imagination. But to those who overlook Alphys because she's cringe or boring, I think it might be worth stepping back and asking why you feel that way, when there's so much more to her. But before we go, I think it’s worth looking at what Alphys might’ve been like in a more idealistic world, free of the trauma and tragedy. That’s right. It’s time to talk about… In Deltarune, Alphys is not a royal scientist. She lacks the burdens of her Undertale self. Instead, she’s a school teacher who Toriel personally recommended after the tragic death of Gerson Boom. However, while she’s lacking in trauma, her anxiety and nerdy habits remain. She has an inspirational video game poster in her classroom. Buff anime superheroes embracing as her desktop wallpaper. She also spends class time watching anime on her phone, then lies that it’s important work. Nerdy habits aside, Alphys is a rather meek teacher who puts up with a lot, such as allowing Kris to sleep in class without any real penalty. When Susie arrives late, she’s very clearly intimidated and doesn’t penalize her for her tardiness When the chalk goes missing, she threatens to punish the whole class if the perpetrator doesn’t speak up, but stammers and shows that it’s a fairly empty threat, as she has to beg for someone to come clean. Alphys, much like her Undertale self, doesn’t have a lot of backbone and seems to let her students walk all over her. This continues after the fact. If you visit her in the alley in Chapter 1, she’s relieved that Kris is okay but doesn’t punish them for playing hooky. She says it’s because she’s the “cool teacher” and tells Kris not to worry about it, which further shows how desperately she wants to appeal to her students. Much like how in Undertale, she would lie to seem more appealing to Undyne. She also lies to Toriel about Kris’ performance and habits in class if you backtrack in the hall during chapter 2, claiming that they’re normal, and calls them her favorite student. It’s possible that she means this, but it’s just as likely that she says all of this because Toriel got her the job and she feels indebted to the family as a result, especially with how eager for Kris’ approval she is when it comes to things like sharing her DVD set in chapter 1 or asking about her anime review in chapter 2. Speaking of that anime review, the fact that she published it in the teen zone section of the library further shows her deep desire to appeal to and connect with her students. She even asks Kris if they looked at it with their friends and nudges them to talk about it with the other kids. She may be in an awkward place where her nerdy interests make it hard for her to relate to others in her age group, though Asgore at least seems to enjoy her anime and manga. Though it is fascinating how Deltarune Alphys prefer Mew Mew Kissy Cutie 2, while her Undertale self screamed about how it ruined her character arc. Personally, I think it's a matter of circumstances. Undertale Alphys lived a much darker and more traumatic experience. So the lighter and fluffier Mew Mew 1 probably caters to her tastes more, whereas DR Alphys lives such a meager and simple life that a darker take on the franchise probably catches her interest. If she's not just saying this to appease Asgore, who liked Mew Mew 2. On that note, Alphys retains her crushes on both Asgore and Undyne, as she contemplates if the flowers she gets from Asgore mean that he likes her in chapter 1, while in chapter 2 she crashed her bike because she found Undyne attractive. Her relationship with Sans, meanwhile, is purely business. She comes to his store wearing PJs and sunglasses to stuff ramen in a suitcase and leave. Thus, it seems their relationship is a bit more distant in Deltarune, whereas it’s possible they worked together studying the timeline in Undertale. Alphys, interestingly, has a fascinating parallel to her Undertale self in that while in Undertale she’s the successor to Gaster as a royal scientist, in Deltarune, she is Gerson’s successor. While I’d argue that it’s more significant in Deltarune because Gerson’s absence is still felt by the townspeople and his family, it’s a fascinating thing that Gerson is alive and well in Undertale, while Gaster is deeply rooted in Deltarune’s story and will likely make his proper onscreen appearance and have his actual relevance here. Beyond that, there’s not a ton to unpack with Deltarune Alphys yet, but it is nice to see her living a happier life here, even if she’s still got some issues to work through. I’d personally love to see her involved in one of the Dark Worlds because I think there’s room to explore her struggles to meet the expectations placed on her as the new teacher. Overall, though, I still think there’s a lot to discuss with Alphys, and hope that perhaps with this video, she’ll get some much-loved time in the spotlight. Before we go, though, I’d like to shoutout a few of the fanworks that actually give Alphys the love she deserves. First, there’s the ALIVE AU comic by tatatale on tumblr. While a multiverse AU fancomic, it focuses on an Alphys from a geno timeline branch along with other less focused on AU characters, such as Mettaton and Undyne. It’s great to see Alphys get some genuine focus in a multiverse context, given her canonical interest. There’s of course the Alphys NEO battle from the fandom’s early days. It’s still a really neat project for its time and one of the only fan battles that actually focuses on Alphys. Then, of course, there's Xtale, which is one of the few big fanworks that has Alphys in a major supporting role, which is really neat. I've been recommended a few other fanworks, such as the Entity NEO fancomic, which I will be linking in the description. As well as Alphys and the Queen, a fanfiction on Archive of Our Own. The other example I can give is our Inverted Fate Alphys battle, which is a fully playable adaptation of Inverted Fate’s 26th chapter and features a fully playable battle with a party system, 21 different endings, and some cool unlockables. This video has been in the works for a long time, so if you can share it around, like, and all that jazz, it’d be super appreciated, as my last two videos didn’t perform quite as well. You can check them out starting in the linked cards up above and in the end screen. We've put a ton of work into our Inverted Fate content recently, and I was thinking of doing some commentary videos as a sort of stopgap between larger projects. Let me know if you’d like to see that here! A brief thank you to all of my patrons and ko-fi supporters. If you'd like to see your name onscreen here, then head on over to my Patreon, linked up above! Patrons get access to work in progress cuts of various content, scripts, behind the scenes content, and more. With that, I want to thank you all for watching, and have a great day!
