Papyrus (character)

Papyrus
Undertale character
File:Papyrus Confused.gif Unused Sprites for Papyrus shown in the Undertale Art Book available in Fangamer
First appearance	Undertale September 15, 2015
Last appearance	Undertale September 15, 2015
Created by	Toby Fox and Temmie Chang
In-universe information
Species	Skeleton
Weapon	Bones
Family	Sans (brother)
Friends	Undyne, Alphys and Asgore,

Papyrus is a fictional character in the 2015 role-playing video game Undertale by Toby Fox. He is introduced as a comic relief and acts as the second main boss of the game in the area Snowdin. He wants to capture humans in order to become popular and become friends with everyone even if it is a human. He is one off the most popular characters in the game along with Toriel, Flowey, Undyne and Sans.

History and appearances

In Undertale

Papyrus is a skeleton wearing a white shirt with red marking (a reference to what the Starman in the video game with heavy inspiration of Undertale, Earthbound also known as Mother in Japan has on his chest), black sleeves with red cloves, black trousers with blue pants with golden stripes across his pants and red boots. Unlike Sans, he has two outfits in the game including his dating outfit which he calls his Cool Dude outfit and his jogging outfit which displays Jogboy. Prior to the events of Undertale, he had moved to the settlement in Snowdin from an unknown location with his brother Sans. Sans is basically the opposite of Papyrus since he's lazy, doesn't want to capture any humans and even shown to be depressed (evidence by the genocide route of the game) because of what he thinks that when Frisk crosses the barrier, they'll reset the events of their journey, which affects him more than anyone else in the game apart from Flowey.

Papyrus first appears in Snowdin, after Sans hides Frisk behind a lamp that's shaped like themself, Papyrus checks on Sans, ignoring the lamp that sans hid Frisk in, he complains to Sans about him being incredibly lazy by not doing his work of capturing humans, making puzzles for them and his bad puns, he tells Sans that he'll become popular after capturing a human, he'll be apart of the Royal Guard and that he'll have lots of friends and that he'll bathe in the shower of kisses every morning. After he leaves Sans to calibrate the puzzles, he later finds Frisk alone along with his brother, though confuses them as a rock at first, is excited about the fact that the human is there and proclaims that he'll capture them.

Papyrus along with Sans serves puzzles for Frisk to solve until Frisk reaches to Snowdin Town, when Frisk enters the last room of Snowdin, Papyrus says that he wants to become friends with Frisk and that he thinks that they are loney however he goes against his previous wishes and fights Frisk anyways in order to capture Frisk. After getting tired of fighting Frisk, he offers to spare Frisk, if Frisk spares Papyrus then he'll become upset at the fact that he couldn't even capture a "weak" human like Frisk but accepts the fact that he can at least be friends with them, he also tells Frisk about Asgore and invites Frisk to his house depending on what Frisk did (either just becoming friends with Papyrus or dating him.) If Frisk attacks Papyrus then his body except his head will turn into dust, he'll say that "AT LEAST I HAVE MY HEAD." before his head becomes dust and dies, when you kill him, Sans will not appear anywhere else in game until he judges Frisk in the Last Corridor before meeting up with King Asgore and Undyne abruptly stops her speech about Monsters and Humans and is upset at the fact Frisk killed Papyrus instead of making a anime like speech on how everything would be better if Frisk was dead.

When Papyrus invites Frisk into his house, he'll allow Frisk to explore his and Sans' house before starting the date with them, after convincing Papyrus that they love him or that they are completely obsessed with him however doesn't like how Frisk obsessed him but wants to help Frisk find someone to become their love interest or find more monsters and people to be friends with, but states that he still wants to be friends with them and hands his phone number to the human.

When Frisk hangs out with Sans in his favourite restaurant Grillby's when entering the second room of Waterfall, he reveals that Undyne made Papyrus a Royal Guard Trainee after Papyrus went to Undyne's house to beg to become apart of the Royal Guard, Undyne kicked him out of the house since he came to her house in 3am, after waking up to see Papyrus waiting at the door since she kicked him out of the house, she became impressed with Papyrus' confidence and the two became friends. Papyrus after Frisk goes to Waterfall to meet with Undyne about capturing the human, Papyrus tries to tell Undyne that she doesn't need to kill them but Undyne refuses to back down and chases Frisk throughout Waterfall, Papyrus tries to make sure that Frisk doesn't fight Undyne but even when he calls Frisk to tell them to change their equipment, Undyne still finds out that they are human and fights them. When Frisk runs away from Undyne during her fight, Papyrus calls in order to tell them to befriend Undyne along with him.

After Frisk spares Undyne by pouring water on her when she faints in Hotland due to how hot it is, Frisk goes to Undyne's house along with Frisk to befriend her, Undyne reveals that she doesn't really want Papyrus to be in the Royal Guard since she thinks that Papyrus is too nice to kill anyone and that he'll get killed by a ruthless murderer. Undyne got Papyrus to do cooking lessons in order to get him to do something else with his life.

After Frisk fake hits Undyne and her house gets burned down, Undyne will join Papyrus whenever Frisk calls Papyrus, after Frisk loads their save file after defeating Omega Flowey and not killing anyone, when Frisk has a pretend "date" with Alphys and Alphys reveals to Undyne that she lied to her, Undyne gets Papyrus to a marathon with Alphys though Alphys only does one lap before going to her lab.

When Toriel Interrupts Asgore's fight with Frisk, Papyrus meets Toriel for the first time though he confuses her as a clone to Asgore at first and gets annoyed by Toriel and Sans for their bad puns, he also states that this is the worst ending possible, after every main Undertale Character except Mettaton, appears on screen together, Papyrus reveals to Alphys that Flowey told him to call everyone except Toriel. When Flowey kidnaps Papyrus and the gang, before Flowey kills Frisk, all of them stop Flowey from harming Frisk, but Flowey absorbs all of the monsters souls except Napstablook to form into Asriel.

After Asriel's fight, Asgore tells Papyrus that the Royal Guard has been discarded which makes Papyrus feel like that this is once again the worst possible ending. During the Pacifist credits, Papyrus is shown driving a car similar to the one on his bed along with Sans riding his bike.

In the Genocide route, Papyrus doesn't want to fight Frisk anymore and offers to spare them without engaging a fight against him, if Frisk decides to fight, Papyrus will once again, die in hit, before that he delivers a powerful speech on how Frisk can become a good person if they don't think so. However if you spare him, Papyrus will reveal that he was actually afraid, but is glad that Frisk is becoming a better person, he also doesn't mind that he didn't capture you and he also talks about getting out of the underground and Asgore like normal and will ask if they want to hang out with Papyrus. (This will abort the genocide route if the player chooses this) When Frisk talks to Sans in Waterfall will say that he is glad that Frisk didn't kill Papyrus but doesn't ask Frisk if they want to go to Grillby's with him due to every monster in that town apart from Papyrus, Sans and Monster Kid evacuated from the town.

In Deltarune

Although Papyrus doesn't appear in Deltarune Chapter One, his brother Sans told Kris that they can come to his house and meet his brother.

In other media

Papyrus has been the subject of many fan works and projects, being featured in numerous games, creations, and video game mods most famous of which is Undertale: Disbelief Papyrus which is about what if Sans fought against Frisk in Snowdin and that Papyrus actually was the one to see all of his friends die in the Genocide Route

Development

In the Undertale Art Book, it's revealed that Papyrus was going a creep who wears a fedora and have no redeeming qualities, his favourite show was going to be My Little Boney (a reference to My Little Pony). This was changed to Papyrus being more friendly because a mean spirited character wouldn't fit the game and it's lesson on to be kind to others.

In Toby Fox's Twitter page, Toby Fox said that Papyrus was originally Times New Roman

Papyrus along with Sans is listed in the credits as being created by Toby Fox with special inspiration from J.N. Wiedle, author of the webcomic Helvetica, a series about an eponymous skeleton named after the Helvetica typeface. His first concept drawing was made by Fox on a college notebook.

Bonetrousle (Papyrus' theme) along with Fallen Down, Heartache, Nyeh heh heh!, Another Medium and MEGALOVANIA were made before Toby Fox made Undertale, Heartache, Nyeh heh heh! and Bonetrousle were made for another game that Toby Fox made that he cancelled but later reformed as Deltarune.

He is one of the characters who does not normally use the default font in his dialogue; rather, it is usually displayed in a uppercase Papyrus unlike Sans, he always uses this font and it's always Uppercase when talking even if he's serious, speaking of Sans, he is often paired with him and is also named after a font of the same name.