Papyrus

Papyrus is the brother of Sans and a major character in Undertale. His main motive is to capture a human so he can become a member of the Royal Guard, and finally have friends and popularity.

Papyrus
“ YOU'RE BLUE NOW. THAT'S MY ATTACK! NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!!! „ ~ Papyrus
Origin
Origin	Undertale
Creator	Toby Fox
First Appearance	Undertale
Characteristics
Species	Monster
Gender	Male
Pronouns	He/Him
Sexuality	Unknown
Age	Unknown
Birthday	Unknown
Height	Unknown
Weight	Unknown
Ethnicity	Skeleton
Status	Alive
Alignment	Neutral Good
Archetype	Understudy, Comic Relief
Occupation	Royal Guard Member in Training, Sentry Guard
Time Period	201X
Language	English, Monster
Combat Style	Magical Fighting
Homeworld	Earth
Relationships
Affiliations	Underground
Enemies	Humans (Formerly in True Pacifist Route)

Background

Papyrus is a flamboyant skeleton who presents a confident, charismatic image of himself. He works hard and, despite his brash personality, is kind at heart. He is optimistic and innocent even when the protagonist beheads him in a Genocide Route. He is also occasionally oblivious and nonobservant, but can be cunning at times, as seen when he uses reverse psychology to trick Undyne into befriending the protagonist.

Papyrus believes in others just as much as he believes in himself. He has so much faith in his abilities that he waited outside of Undyne's house all night and begged her to accept him into the Royal Guard. Seeing his persistence, Undyne offered to train him but instead gave him cooking lessons.

He cooks spaghetti in his spare time, though many characters seem to think that he is not very good at it. One of the reasons for this is because Papyrus never ate spaghetti himself to complete the chef's guidebook to cooking by tasting their creation before serving. He, therefore, cooks spaghetti only because everyone else loves to eat it, indicating he does not play favorites. He loves puzzles and japes, as shown in the numerous puzzles he prepares for the protagonist as well as his collection of "complex tomes about puzzle creation." Though advanced puzzles may seem cerebral, Papyrus also enjoys children's books and is somewhat childish with the decoration of his room. He also collects action figures.

Papyrus also watches Mettaton's TV shows, and admires Mettaton so much that he would move to Hotland, a region that he hates.

Name Meaning

Papyrus' name is a reference to the font "PAPYRUS", this is part of the reason he also speaks in it. According to Toby this was playing on the joke of Comic Sans and Papyrus being the most hated fonts at the time.

Appearance

General Description: Papyrus is a tall skeleton with a skull more vertical and geometric than his brother's. His eyes resemble vertical slits, and his skeletal pseudo-brows and the corners of his mouth form most of his expressions. He has eyeballs which show at times when he is experiencing strong emotions. He is relatively taller and slightly slimmer than his brother.

Normal Outfit ("Battle Body"): An orange-red cape. A white chestplate with a gold trim on the bottom, adorned with a symbol resembling that of Starman from the MOTHER series. Blue briefs with a golden belt. Red coquelicot gloves, each with a yellow trim. Red boots.

Befriending Outfit ("Cool Dude"): A backward baseball cap. A t-shirt reading "Cool Dude." Small shorts with buttons. Gloves with striped trim. Knee-high socks. Sneakers. Basketballs on his shoulders, likely Mettaton's MTT-Brand FashionBall.

Alphys Date Outfit ("Jogboy"): A sweatband. Shorts. A t-shirt reading "JOGBOY" with hearts on the pauldrons. His boots, gloves, and scarf are still worn.

Alternate Forms/Disguises: His "Cool Dude" and "Jogboy" outfits are considered alternate outfits rather than distinct alternate forms.

Personality

• Flamboyant: Papyrus is a flamboyant skeleton who presents a confident, charismatic image of himself. He refers to himself as "THE GREAT PAPYRUS."

• Kind-Hearted and Optimistic: Papyrus works hard and is kind at heart despite his brash personality. He is optimistic and brave. He is considerate and forgiving even when the protagonist beheads him in the Genocide Route.

• Oblivious: Papyrus is occasionally oblivious and nonobservant, but can be cunning at times, such as using reverse psychology to trick Undyne into befriending the protagonist. He is thought to be somewhat naive by other characters, but not dumb.

• Belief: Papyrus believes in others just as much as he believes in himself. He has so much faith in his abilities that he waited outside Undyne's house all night to beg her to accept him into the Royal Guard. He interprets direct insults as the protagonist trying to make themselves look bad so he can hurt them easier.

• Cooks Spaghetti: Papyrus cooks spaghetti from time to time, though many characters think he is not very good at it. He never ate spaghetti himself to complete the chef's guidebook, so he cooks only because everyone else loves to eat it.

• Loves Puzzles and Japes: Papyrus loves puzzles and japes, shown by the numerous puzzles he prepares for the protagonist and his collection of "complex tomes about puzzle creation." He enjoys children's books and is somewhat childish with the decoration of his room. He also collects action figures.

• Unexpected Skills: Papyrus has unexpected skills including high-caliber artistic prowess, a photographic memory for phone calls, and the ability to perform physics-breaking acrobatics.

• Unconcerned About His Own Death: Papyrus is strangely unconcerned about his own death, comically stating "AT LEAST I STILL HAVE MY HEAD" before dying, or being more worried about the protagonist's path in the Genocide Route.

• Admires Mettaton: Papyrus watches Mettaton's TV shows and admires him so much he would move to Hotland, a region he hates.

• Loneliness: Papyrus is implied to have a deep loneliness. He wants to join the Royal Guard to be popular and loved. He does not get as much positive attention as Sans. His mailbox is empty, and he claims it is "[HIS] EMPTINESS, NOT YOURS." He exclaims he has never met someone so much like him and that he does not wonder what having lots of friends is like. This desperation leads Flowey to manipulate him into calling the protagonist's friends to the barrier room.

• Kindness: Papyrus has a level of kindness and understanding no other character possesses. He is the only enemy with attacks that never kill the protagonist, only leaving them at 1 HP. In the King Papyrus ending, he does not judge fallen humans as all good or bad. In the Genocide Route, his mercy is often a deciding factor for the protagonist to abort the route or continue.

Relationships

The Human

Despite his stated goal of capturing the protagonist, Papyrus genuinely cares about them and ultimately ends up dating—or more accurately, hanging out with—them if the protagonist spares him. If the protagonist chooses the date option, Papyrus turns them down, realizing that he does not share the same romantic feelings. Notably, Papyrus will still spend time with the protagonist even if they had been on the Genocide Route up until the point of sparing him.

The protagonist remains friends with Papyrus throughout the game and gains the ability to call him on the cell phone from almost anywhere in the Underground.

Sans

Sans is Papyrus's older brother. Though Papyrus frequently scolds him for his laziness and expresses annoyance at his endless skeleton puns, the two share a deep mutual affection. Papyrus often cleans up after Sans and was the one who pushed him to get a job as a sentry.

Papyrus is frustrated by Sans's tendency to nap constantly, particularly through the night, and remarks on how impressive it is that his brother can slack off so much. Despite Sans being the one who reads Papyrus bedtime stories and serves as the household's sole provider, Papyrus takes care of his brother in turn and wonders what Sans would do without such a "cool guy" watching over him. Together, they constructed Papyrus's "battle body" as well as his cardboard sentry station in Snowdin Forest.

Papyrus is also aware that Sans is secretive and somewhat strange.

Undyne

Papyrus and Undyne share a close friendship. After Papyrus expressed interest in joining the Royal Guard, Undyne began giving him cooking lessons, and the two bonded over time. Because Undyne does not have the heart to tell Papyrus that she will never allow him to join the Royal Guard, Papyrus continues trying to impress her by capturing a human. Sometimes Undyne grosses Papyrus out, but he looks up to her as a role model. Papyrus can also be oblivious when Undyne is angry at him, though he is perceptive enough to know that presenting befriending the protagonist as a challenge will appeal to her.

Flowey

Papyrus views Flowey as a good friend, as Flowey offers him predictions, flattery, advice, and encouragement. Papyrus has even adopted some of Flowey's dialogue patterns. Flowey also guides Papyrus to call the protagonist's friends, interrupting Asgore's battle with the protagonist at a crucial moment.

General Information

Name: Papyrus

Origin: Undertale

First Appearance: Undertale

Company: N/A

Creator: Toby Fox

Actor: N/A

Gender: Male

Sexuality: Unknown

Pronouns: He/Him

Handedness: Unknown

Age: Unknown

Birthday: Unknown

Time Period: 201X

Timeline: Undertale Timeline

Homeworld: Earth

Residence: Snowdin (Underground)

Story Role: Boss, Supporting Protagonist

Legacy: City-Wide Legacy (Papyrus is well-known throughout Snowdin)

Influence: Event Influence

Language: English & Monster

Ethnicity: Skeleton

Religion: N/A

Classification: The Great Papyrus

Species: Monster

State of Being: Regular

Physiology: Monster Physiology

In-Universe Creator: Unknown

Occupation: Royal Guard Member in Training, Sentry Guard

Combat Style: Magical Fighting

Affiliations: Underground

Enemies: Humans (Formerly in True Pacifist Route)

Height: Unknown

Weight: Unknown

Status: Alive in True Pacifist Route and some Neutral Routes, Deceased in some Neutral Routes and Genocide Route (Is killed by The Human in some of the neutral routes and the genocide route)

Alignment: Neutral Good (The nicest character in the game, completely unwilling to kill The Human, even accidentally. Even when the human commits genocide and slashes Payprus, he states that he still believes in the human, and was even willing to spare them during the genocide fight. Constantly tries to help the human from Undyne during waterfall while also helping Undyne at the same time. Isn't aware that taking the human SOUL to Asgore will result in the humans deaths either, thus showing he isn't for killing)

Threat Level: Street Threat

Potential

• Type(s) of Potential: Fixed Potential
• Level of Potential: Fixed
• Description: Shows no notable potential statements or feats.
• Limitations: Nothing notable.

Archetype: Understudy / Comic Relief

Codex Statistics

Grade: A

Tier: 9-B, Higher with Magic, Far Higher with Special Attack

Cardinality: Finite

Dimensionality: 3-D

Power Source: Magic

Attack Potency: Wall level (Potency) (Remarked by Undyne as strong and the only reason she doesn't enlist him into the Royal Guard is that he's too nice, where Undyne can suplex a huge boulder just because she can), Higher with Magic (Monsters enact in SOUL battles against humans due to humans in their physical forms being far stronger than monsters), Far Higher with Special Attack (Stated that if he used his special attack The Human would have been "blasted to"). Can ignore conventional durability with attacks to the SOUL (As they are attacking the SOUL; which is the very culmination of one's being)

Durability: Wall level, Lower if not wanting to FIGHT or cruel intentions (Monsters weaken when they don't want to fight and one with more killing intent and crueller intentions will inflict more damage on them)

Striking Strength: Wall Class (Potency)

Lifting Strength: Superhuman Class (Remarked by Undyne as strong, where Undyne can suplex a huge boulder just because she can)

Travel Speed: Athletic Human (Trains and can pull off 100 laps for jogging exercise)

Attack Speed: Transonic (Can tag The Human, who can maneuver and dodge around the Greater Dog's barks, a sound based attack)

Reaction Speed: Transonic

Stamina: Very High (Daily goes through all of his traps and puzzles in Snowdin to re-calibrate them without showing any real signs of tiring)

Range: Standard Melee, Tens of Meters with Magic

Intelligence: Average Intelligence

Knowledge

General KnowledgePuzzle KnowledgeFood Knowledge

Possibly Novice level (Naturally naive, doesn't know what the sun is), potentially Higher (Papyrus is more aware and suspicious then he leads on, only acting less knowledgeable when around others)

Expert level (Despite how silly Papyrus' puzzles may seem, he has adequate knowledge on how to make difficult puzzles and the gauntlet of deadly terror. He's also painted a rock formation to resemble a bridge)

Expert level (Papyrus is pretty knowledgeable on different types of foods and pastas)

---

Powers and Techniques

General Monster AbilitiesUnique Abilities

• Irregular Physiology (Monsters physiologies show they are mostly made of magic, noting that humans have a "physical form", along with having their SOUL directly attuned to their body)
• Magic (All monsters are made of magic and can use and express themselves through magic)
  • Curtain Fire (Monsters can use their magic to make bullet-pattern cards. Monsters are able to develop a large sum of magical attacks to overwhelm the opponent)
  • Creation (Monsters can make weapons, clothes and even food from magic)
  • Personal Domain & Battlefield Removal (When one encounters a monster they get into a fight, a FIGHT is an encounter in a monster's personal domain allowing them to fight humans, this has various rules such as turn-based combat)
• Limited Spatial Manipulation
  • 3-D: Monsters can at times influence the battle box)
  • Transmutation & Healing (Monsters can turn their attacks into healing projectiles)
• Absorption (Monsters and humans can absorb the SOUL as long as the person isn’t the same species as them)
• Non-Standard Interaction
  • Metaphysical Interaction: All monster attacks in Undertale are to the SOUL.

• Resistance to
  • Soul Manipulation (All monsters bodies are attuned to their SOUL thus they are effectively taking hits to their SOUL whenever attacked)

• Enhanced Senses (Notices what The Annoying Dog does over the phone)
• Conditional Attacks (Papyrus can send out blue attacks, where blue attacks only inflict harm if one moves)
• Bone Manipulation (Uses bones for various attacks)
• Soul Manipulation (Thorugh turning one's SOUL blue, it is no longer able to float around and is restricted by gravity)
  • Gravity Manipulation.

• Resistance to
  • Extreme Colds (As skeletons have no skin they are unaffected by the cold weather of Snowdin)
  • Extreme Heats (As skeletons they can casually sleep while in Hotland)

---

Notable Techniques

• Blue Mode: Papyrus has the ability to turn his opponent's soul blue, a trait he shares with his brother. This makes him able to ground his opponents, removing their ability to fly around.

• Bone Attacks: Papyrus will send numerous bones at his opponent in varying patterns and speeds. He will also often throw in unique structures and blue bones, which can only be avoided by remaining perfectly still.

• Special Attack: An unknown attack by Papyrus that he implied would have defeated the human.

---

Other

Standard Tactics: Papyrus would try to catch the opponent through various puzzles, after all of those fail, he will eventually opt to battle the opponent, using bone attacks against them, along with Blue Mode.

Weaknesses: Too kindhearted to truly hurt someone, leaving himself off-guard. Undyne even remarks that this is why she can't make him a royal guards member. All monsters are weak to an attack with killing intent behind it and if a monster doesn't want to fight, they are weakened greatly.

Explanations

Monster Check Stats

Monster's check stats are quite dubious for a couple of reasons:

• Monsters like Glyde give off the implication that monsters are the ones listing their statistics.
• Mad Dummy has a defense stat listed of -40 but notes because they're a ghost physical attacks will fail. One could say the -40 comes from the fact that the dummy's body is that weak, however, the regular Dummy's check stats just has their DEF as 0, there's really no reason why the Mad Dummy should have far lower DEF stats especially during a pacifist route.
• Characters like Napstablook have a defense stat listed but you actually aren't lowering his HP he was just lowering it for you to be nice.
• Toriel's stats are listed at 80 ATK and 80 DEF, the same as Asgore's stats. Yet in one of the endings Unydne with her strength as stated by Sans literally threw Toriel out of the castle. Despite Undyne's stats being 7 ATK and 0 DEF. This would also imply characters like Papyrus are stronger then her as he has an 8 ATK and 2 DEF, and while she does admit Papyrus is pretty tough, it's never really implied to be that Papyrus is stronger then Undyne. Royal Guard members are also shown to have higher stats then her through this logic.
• Undyne the Undying has stats of 99 ATK and 99 DEF yet due to Mettaton's Invulnerable Body, they have a defense stat of 999.

On top of these, genocide route has the check stats differ too with confusing changes, while the human's killing intent is a reason behind this, some characters have their defense stats raise such as Papyrus'. There's also inconsistencies even in these routes, for example The Human at a level 3 killing intent one-shots Toriel yet The Human at level 13 can still only chip damage Asgore.

It should also be noted, the argument that Toriel sent Asgore flying with her fire, has an issue it was an off guard hit which it has been shown off-guard/betrayal kills can one-shot monsters as they lowered their guard.

Magic vs. Physicality

Monsters are mostly made of magic while human beings are mostly made of water making humans with their physical forms far stronger then them. However humans have lost the ability to use magic by proxy.

Monsters bodies being made of magic has their body physically attuned to their SOUL. Due to this, monsters that don't want to fight have their defenses weaken and one with more killing intent and crueller intentions will inflict more damage on them. This is due to a monsters SOUL being made of love, hope, and compassion.

Monsters bodies being made of magic also makes it where they do not possess enough physical matter to take concentrations of determination.

In the Undertale 10th Anniversary Livestream Gerson reveals that humanity once had magic too but creating the barrier that separated humans and monsters caused them to use up all their magic.

Songs:

III Papyrus' Theme Bonetrousle

Battle Records

0 - 2 - 0

VictoriesLossesInconclusive

None.

• Pacifist/Neutral Route Human - Fight
  • Conditions: None.
  • Location: Snowdin

• Genocide Route Human - Fight
  • Conditions: None.
  • Location: Snowdin

None.

Versus Threads

VictoriesLossesInconclusive

None.

None.

None.