Look, there are times when the Undertale fandom is a literal garbage cesspool. Glorifying abusive relationships, disgusting inter-ship hate, a lot of negativity centered around how certain characters are perceived (I could go on for pages about the Great Frisk Gender Debate). There are plenty of times when I wonder why I’m even here.
But today isn’t one of those days
Guys, I’ve been in the fandom game for a long time now. I’ve seen the good ones come and go. I was there for the rise and fall of Superwholock. I’ve been there for the Potterheads. I’ve grief-counseled for the Merling fandom. I’ve been here long enough that the Marvel fanbase still seems like a baby to me.
And I have never seen a fandom become so creative, so fast.
There are SO MANY AUS, GUYS. SO MANY.
So you’ve got your basic Swap one, where characters change personalities around. It’s a fleshed out au, but nothing I haven’t seen a version of before.
Then you’ve got your “everything is darker, and kind of evil” au. Again, it’s really interesting in it’s own right, but I have seen versions of this in other fandoms
Then…they combine? And yet are still somehow distinct? Okay…
Undertale in space? Wow, that’s actually pretty interesting!
Wait? Sans combines with Gaster, and searches for holes in the universe with an older Frisk, in an attempt to understand Determination and resets more fully? Okay…
Sans locked in a Save screen after a genocide run?
Frisk decides to stay in the Ruins with Toriel
Undertale as something out of the mind of Tim Burton or Neil Gaiman…with a fully fleshed out backstory?
Undernovela?
Don’t even get me started on the random (but genius) little acts with this guy
We have so many aus we’ve started building crossdimensional characters.
We’ve made a destroyer
and a guardian
the Star Sanses, who help protect, and Cross Sans, who wants to create a world of his own
And this is barely scratching the surface.
The point is, this fandom, while often full of drama and hard to live with, is also excessively creative, and filled with a million interesting ideas. It hasn’t even been two years since the original game came out, and yet we’ve fleshed out a rich and complex world. All made largely by independent creators, likely working with no financial impetus and no chance of becoming famous outside of a select group on the internet. They did it for love of a game, and for the ideas that it sparked in them
So despite all the times this fandom has let me down
I am still so damn proud to count myself a part of this beautifully creative team
Bootsrcool 