Undertale Theory: The Psychology of Sans | Gnoggin

whoo I have a new conspiracy guys it involves the identity of a certain skeleton that loves knocking around the old funny bone drumroll please that's right sands is none other than big skeleton from the 1992 Welsh cartoon funny bones concrete evidence this is a YouTube video just believe everything I say are my fans will attack you okay so maybe we don't know the actual identity of our skillets of whipster unless of course his identity is none other than sans the skeleton but what we do know is that there are some deep psychological problems or issues deep within the mind of this character namely his depression but in order to understand what exactly comes into play for sanz's character we have to know what depression entails so what is depression many people assume it just means being sad all the time and while that may be a part of it it is by far not the only piece of the puzzle taken directly from the National Institute of Mental Health major depression is defined as severe symptoms of depression that interfere with your ability to work sleep study eat and enjoy life which is a straightforward meaning now let's look at the symptoms persistent sad anxious or empty feelings feelings of hopelessness or pessimism feelings of guilt worthlessness or helplessness irritability restlessness loss of interest in activities or hobbies once pleasurable fatigue and decreased energy difficulty concentrating remembering details and making decisions insomnia early morning wakefulness or excessive sleeping overeating or appetite thoughts of suicide suicide attempts aches and pains headaches cramps or digestive problems that do not ease even with treatment and some of us know these symptoms all too well though being a skeleton digestive problems would be an interesting case it's easy to see how these all fit into the way sands reacts to decisions of the story Sansa shown having a huge feeling of futility and hopelessness his dialogue especially in the genocide run shows just how he feels things have been all for nothing you can't understand how this feels knowing that one day without any warning it's all going to be reset look I gave up trying to go back a long time ago and getting to the surface doesn't really appeal to me anymore either because even if we do we'll just end up right back here without any memory of it right to be blunt it makes it kind of hard to give it my all or is that just a poor excuse for being lazy hell if I know and now I know you're all saying well we already knew that and yes that's because this is the most thirteen point or pesky punster but there are more clues to his depression such as him falling asleep while on his job but even more so falling asleep during the fight with him while it could be argued that it's the fight wearing him down to exhaustion he's certainly not working his fingers to the bone simplified this could be caused by a number of reasons but as we know depression can cause intense insomnia which in turn turns into fatigue and with insomnia and fatigue you try to sleep whenever your body lets you you can be tossing and turning all night unable to get a wink and then middle of the day you can take nap sans find sleep whenever he is able to but because he's constantly on and off and on and off he feels so fatigued that you just can't keep up with everyday activity and those are just a broad stroke of things that could affect someone with major depression the Sleep Foundation actually outlines many variants on each of these issues and adds a few lesser considered ones but now it is also heavily implied that sands has guilt over something perhaps the incident with gaster it is the dialogue of the lost soul version of sands that hammers at home though you'll never see him again it could also be that sands is one of the very few people who seems to be able to see all of the timelines and gain resets maybe this is why he has feelings of futility and why he just sits by while the genocide Opeth takes place and all the while this gives him a feeling of guilt but we'll get right back to this later for now though let's look at another aspect of Santa's personality his affinity for comedy Sanz wants to make people laugh and enjoy the life or lives that he can't humor has been well known as a shield against harsh realities in fact the term gallows humor describes just that Sanz is using something that we as humans used to deal with harsh anxiety Sanz is very designed even used to reflect his emotional state his face while wearing a skeletal grin also resembles a mask a mask to hide his true feelings we all wear metaphorical masks from time to time and sans is no different also notably he wears the color blue which is a color often used as many people know as a means of expressing sadness depression you feel the blues and finally even his undead appearance could speak to his feeling of despair as well since often death is used as an emotional metaphor for depression more tangibly it represents a person that wants to be dead but is still just shambling around living life like a zombie more but as it is some people go through with that but before we get any deeper into that let's look at the importance of senses relationship with his brother papyrus to us it seems papyrus is an oblivious failure at catching humans who also happens to be obsessed with spaghetti and while there is much more to his character than that the real importance is that he is sanz's anchor papyrus is the reason sans is sticking around because he cares so much for his brother that he can't completely detach from his life papyrus is the glue that binds sans to the path he's on and one of the reasons he looks at his situation the way he does another important character in understanding sans is tutorial she presents a similar anchor weight as she and sans are in a deep bond so much so that he attempts to keep a promise for her this is important because sans typically is not the type to keep promises while papyrus is the strongest bond sure sans toriel is another string attaching him to the protagonistic ideals he holds ah but it doesn't end with clinical psychology now does it no no there are plenty of philosophical ideas at play as well it has been suggested by many sources that Sands is philosophically in line with nihilism and while partly true there is a more specific word we could be using here determinism ah there's that ever important word again determined pops up again and again throughout undertale in a fashion determinism could best be described as the universe from birth it is put on a track and moves ever onward ever advancing ever expanding and now what could be considered a universal birth in a video game a reset when the game tells you that you are filled with determination it is not a hope of making it through the trials of the game itself but instead it is telling you that you are filled with the determination to continue on the path you chose in the very beginning that being neutral pacifist or genocide so does this apply to sands and his depression and apathy well because he's fighting against a philosophy that says nothing he does matters this ultimately leads him to decide that it's not worth it to try and stop you from a neutral run so he just stands by and judges you instead even then he's shown to be fighting against his deterministic side as being a true deterministic nihilist would suggest that morals are just as pointless as the lives that lead them but ultimately he succumbs to just letting whatever happens happen with the exception of the genocide route in which he states all I know is seeing what comes next I can't afford not to care anymore again more evidence that he is in a constant struggle with a deterministic view every possible timeline has and is happening and he seemed them all so he has no choice but to be a determinist it's almost as if toby fox this game's creator designed the game as the story of sands coming to terms with his own futility and perhaps that is why we can all relate to and thus love sands the skeleton we can all fall into periods of what's the point or I don't care and while many of these wonderful characters in the undertale world represent various attributes of the human condition sense it's the hardest depression apathy futility and a constant struggle between giving up or standing up but on the side of the true pacifist run we get a new ending this ending suggests that even sins has the hope to be happy which means we do too we don't know our future we don't know our infinite other timelines it's all in the dark to us but that's okay because if we stay determined then we can get the endings were after you don't have to have a bad time hello thank you so much for watching this is an undertale video Billy a lot of you have been asking for an undertale video from me for a long long time and it's sorry this is late but Isis eerily hoped you enjoyed it and this is also the first of us mini-site series kind of thing that's gonna be here on noggin that's all talking about the psychology of various characters and if you want to support this new psychology of series here on noggin noggin now has a patreon page I've actually had a patreon page for a few years now but I've never expressed that it was there and so now I am all of your support on there is very very appreciated but I don't want anyone to feel like they have to so if you don't want to because you don't feel like it or whatever reason please don't so until next time stay awesome never stop using that noggin and stay determined things will get better

Channel: Lockstin & Gnoggin

Views: 1,762,615

Keywords: Undertale, Game Theory, Animation, Theory, Sans, Chara, Frisk, Earthbound, Ness, Story, Fan, Game, Video Games, Papyrus, Skeleton, matpat, game theorists, characters, psychology, sans the skeleton, funny, inspiring, cute, art, shipping, Gnoggin, depression, suicide, tumblr, time, gaster, WD Gaster, Who is, Character, Walkthrough, lets play

Id: H8hGMFQPBDw

Length: 12min 51sec (771 seconds)

Published: Thu May 05 2016