[A/N] Undertale spoilers. Beware. This was written on April 20th, 2020.

I was very reluctant to give Undertale a chance. As a Steven Universe fan, it sort of felt like it would be a betrayal to my kind, since the two fandoms were kind of at war at the time. But I wound up witnessing small bits and pieces, primarily from the very beginning and the end, mostly by chance. After experiencing the final boss fight of the pacifist route (yes, I spoiled myself on purpose. I do that sometimes), I decided I absolutely needed to get into this game. While I wouldn't say I'm as fanatically devoted to it now as I was a few years ago, it's probably the video game that has led to the biggest impact on my life. It opened my world up to a whole bunch of really incredible, creative people. It's no wonder that this game has tied so many fates together. Its plot and characters are ridiculously well-written through even the simplest moments. Within the cast of vibrant personalities and varying temperaments, one of them particularly stole my heart, and that's Papyrus.

    Up until this point, most of the games/series I had fallen in love with had relatively straightforward characters. They expressed their personalities very clearly, very obviously. The Adversity Twins never put on a tough guy act. Clemont never tried to cover up his zaniness.This is where it kind of started to shift. Characters I loved became more prone to performance. They were more likely to put up a facade. I think a lot of that is because I changed a lot during that time. I became a lot more empathetic towards people who were too afraid to be wholeheartedly themselves.

Papyrus has always stuck out to me as a character who helped me grow in that manner. I think that's because of how non-malicious he is, even with the bravado and hamminess he flaunts. My experience with people who hid who they were mostly chalked up to people mindlessly following trends and then acting like they were the coolest for doing so. Papyrus may act extremely confident, but he never tears down anyone else in the process. That is, aside from Sans, but he means that in a good-natured tough love sort of way. He clearly doesn't hate his brother; he includes him in his human-hunting, sometimes enjoys Sans's puns despite himself, and indirectly states that he finds Sans intelligent ("THE NEXT PUZZLE WILL NOT BE EASY! IT IS DESIGNED BY MY BROTHER, SANS! YOU WILL SURELY BE CONFOUNDED!") He wants the best for his brother.

And you quickly find that he wants the best for pretty much everyone. According to the official Undertale Q&A Tumblr, Papyrus's favorite food isn't even spaghetti. It's that oatmeal with the little dinosaur eggs in them. He just makes spaghetti because everyone loves it. He's literally never eaten it before, which might be why it's so bad. He actively tries to make Frisk and Undyne friends, even though Undyne previously hated Frisk, because they're both his friends and he knows they could benefit from being in each other's corner. He participates in Alphys's intervention of sorts, trying to help her love herself more. And those examples are only on the pacifist route. If he's the only surviving boss, he cooks spaghetti for the whole Underground when he's king. That doesn't even factor in his death in the genocide route. He doesn't fight Frisk/Chara/The Player. He tells you that you can be better. He offers to be a guiding hand and an example. He tries to empathize with you on a personal level. And that takes GUTS. He is literally facing down a deranged and ruthlessly efficient serial killer and offering them a hug. He never loses faith in your ability to change, even when you kill him.

Now. Why do I think his confidence and ego are fake? There are a few reasons. The biggest supporting factor is his speech before his fight. He expresses, "the joy of finding another pasta lover. The admiration for another's puzzle-solving skills. The desire for a cool, smart person to think you are cool." And then, when he backpedals and says that it must be the way Frisk is feeling, he tries to sell it just a little too much. He winds up saying, "I don't ever wonder what having a lot of friends is like. I pity you, lonely human." This very much comes across as projecting for the sake of saving face. Not to mention the fact that he has no letters in his mailbox and he somehow has -2 followers on social media. Another thing that indicates that his narcissism isn't how he truly feels is that, when facing Asgore near the end of the Pacifist route, he doesn't say he'll fight anyone or valiantly save the day. He merely says that he'll get Undyne to help. I don't think he's delusional. He's smart enough to bait Undyne into being your friend and apparently has "complex tomes about puzzle creation."

But why does he act the way he does? I think it's partially to appear more likeable, partially to protect himself. But I also feel like he just genuinely wants to keep everyone in good spirits. Undertale wouldn't be nearly as joyful as it is without him. Every other character heeps their worries and angst onto Frisk when they aren't trying to murder them. But Papyrus stays cheerful. Is it unhealthy? Surely. But it's selfless. And he got the intimate friendship he deserves in the end. He brought a ray of sunshine into a game that was already incredible. He proved me wrong about people and the way they worked in a time where I was far too sure of my cynical opinions. And for that, I'll always be grateful.