Papyrus

"I WILL BE THE ONE! I MUST BE THE ONE! I WILL CAPTURE A HUMAN!"
– Papyrus discussing his plans with Sans.

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

Profile

Appearance

Papyrus is a tall, perhaps anatomically inaccurate skeleton, with a skull more vertical and geometric than his brother. Being skeletal, many of his expressions incorporate a toothy grin. His eyes resemble vertical slits; his skeletal pseudo-brows form most of his expressions. He has eyeballs which show at times when he is experiencing strong emotions.

Normal ("Battle body")

For most of his in-game appearances, he wears his "battle body," an outfit that he created for a costume party.^[1] It consists of a white chest plate with gold trim, coquelicot gloves with a golden trim, blue briefs with a golden belt, and knee-high coquelicot boots. A symbol that resembles that of Starman from the MOTHER series adorns the chest plate. He also wears a short, orange-red cape.

Befriending (Cool Dude)

Halfway through the date/hangout with Papyrus, he changes into his "secret style": a backward baseball cap, a t-shirt that reads "Cool Dude," small shorts with buttons, gloves with striped trim, knee-high socks, and sneakers. He also wears basketballs on his shoulders, likely Mettaton's MTT-Brand FashionBall.

Alphys' Date (Jogboy)

During the "date" with Alphys, Papyrus arrives wearing a sweatband, shorts, and a t-shirt that reads "JOGBOY," with hearts on the pauldrons. He still wears his boots, gloves, and scarf.

Personality

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.

Relationships

The Protagonist

Despite wanting to capture the protagonist, Papyrus still cares about them and eventually ends up dating/hanging out with them if the protagonist does not kill him. He turns the protagonist down if they choose to date, as he realizes he does not feel the same way about them. Notably, Papyrus hangs out with the protagonist even if they had been on a Genocide Route up until sparing him.

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

Sans

Sans is Papyrus's brother, and though Papyrus often chastises him for being lazy and detests his many skeleton puns dropped throughout the game, the two of them care about each other a lot. Papyrus often cleans up after Sans and prompted him to get a job as a sentry.

Papyrus is upset that Sans naps so much, mostly through the night, and mentions that it's impressive how much slacking off his brother can do. Even though Sans reads Papyrus bedtime stories and is the sole provider in the skeleton household, Papyrus takes care of his brother and wonders what Sans would do without such a "cool guy" watching over him. Together, they made Papyrus's "battle body" as well as his cardboard sentry station in Snowdin Forest.

In one of the Neutral Endings where Papyrus becomes King of the Underground after monsters such as Undyne and Asgore go on "vacation", Sans has been doing some of the paperwork and is noticed by Papyrus for working hard. This makes Papyrus proud of him, but also somewhat worried.

Papyrus also recognizes that Sans is secretive and kind of weird.

Undyne

Papyrus and Undyne are good friends. After Papyrus asked to join the Royal Guard, Undyne gave him cooking lessons, and they bonded. Because Undyne does not have the heart to tell Papyrus that she will never let him join the Royal Guard, Papyrus continues trying to impress her by capturing a human. Sometimes Undyne grosses Papyrus out, but Papyrus looks up to her as a role model. Papyrus is also oblivious at times when Undyne is angry at him, though he is keen enough to know to present befriending the protagonist as a challenge to her.

Flowey

Papyrus sees Flowey as a good friend because Flowey offers him predictions, flattery, advice, and encouragement. Papyrus also borrows some of Flowey's dialogue characteristics, and Flowey guides Papyrus to call the protagonist's friends to interrupt Asgore's battle with the protagonist.

Trivia

His original name was "Times New Roman" during development.
Papyrus's pose is likely to be a reference to ancient Egyptian drawings that resemble his stance. Ancient Egyptians wrote primarily on papyrus, a type of paper.
Papyrus's name alludes to the typeface in which he speaks in, Papyrus. This is a reference to Helvetica, which is a webcomic about a skeleton named after a font.
When attempting to name the fallen child "Papyru," the response becomes "I'LL ALLOW IT!!!"; as the character limit in the naming screen prevents Papyrus's full name to be entered.
Toby Fox has "deconfirmed" a claim that Papyrus was inspired by Octopimp.
According to Flowey , Papyrus's favorite food is "that oatmeal with the dinosaur eggs."
Despite his obsession with spaghetti, it is unknown whether he likes spaghetti himself since he is never actually seen eating it. He admits that he only makes it because "...EVERYBODY ELSE LOVES IT!

" As shown HERE

He is the only character whose dialogue does not begin with an asterisk.
- He is also the only character always to speak in capitals (Mettaton stops talking in capitals when he becomes Mettaton EX).
Attempting to leave the electricity maze in Snowdin Forest causes Papyrus to tell the protagonist not to be rude since he made the puzzle just for them. Backing away again causes Papyrus to ask if the protagonist treats their mother the same way when she makes them puzzles. Afterward, he just responds with "HUMANS..."
- Doing this again during Sans's Monster Kidz Word Search puzzle prompts Papyrus to tell Sans that the human is escaping since he made the puzzle too hard.
- There is a glitch where Papyrus speaks without using his font. Before the befriending event with Undyne, if the protagonist confirms the hangout from either side of Papyrus, speaks to the Mad Dummy, then walks up to Papyrus from behind, this glitch occurs. Papyrus speaks in his font after Undyne answers the door, however.
- If the protagonist walks in and out of Papyrus's kitchen before their date, he runs back and forth across the living room and offers differing dialogue based on how many times he did this.
- When first seeing Undyne in Waterfall, when Papyrus comes in to give Undyne his report, if he was killed and the protagonist moved left, they would still see Papyrus's sprite. This bug was fixed in the v1.001 patch.
- Phone calls with Papyrus reveal the following information:

- - Papyrus has an imaginary store that sells flames. It is "a dream of [his]."
  - Papyrus does not remember Napstablook's name and tries to guess it if the protagonist phones him outside their house. His guesses are "Spooky Bloo Bloo" and "Napper Hog." He also does the same with Flowey by calling him "Flowery" and with Napstablook's cousin by calling him "Happstablook."
  - Papyrus believes skeletons are warm and cuddly, but that ghosts are spooky.
  - The snails of Blook Family Snail Farm remind Papyrus of his brother.
  - Papyrus would try eating the mushrooms in the room before the darkening lantern room and the lanterns in the darkening lantern room.
  - Even though he's never seen it before, Papyrus has a disdain for anime.
  - Papyrus says that Undyne "enriches [his] life with shed-based puns".
  - Conveyor belts and lasers are his "least favorite nightmare". This is likely why he does not like Hotland , due to the many puzzles that involve lasers and conveyor belts.
- While Papyrus's "special attack" is shown as a bone during his battle, it is possibly implied that the attack somehow involved a Gaster Blaster.
- In a deleted tweet, Toby Fox said that Papyrus would use the term "aniki," a Japanese honorable term used for older brothers or superiors. There is a multitude of interpretations for this as it doesn't give a clear answer. However, in the official Japanese translation released in 2017, Papyrus refers to Sans as "niichan", a somewhat immature way of addressing one's older brother.
- Papyrus seems to contradict himself in phone calls with Undyne or Sans , compared to when he is only speaking to the protagonist . For example, if called on his own in the MTT Hotel, he remarks "I WOULD NEVER TAKE A VACATION FOR ANY REASON." If Undyne is present, however, he agrees they should vacation to a hotel together.
  - However, upon calling a second time in the MTT Hotel , Papyrus will reveal he was just being sarcastic, and repeats what he normally says if she is not there.
- The artbook reveals that Papyrus was originally going to wear a fedora and be a creep with no redeeming qualities, and his favorite show was going to be called "My Little Boney". This was changed since a mean-spirited character would be unfitting to the game. His original design was also inspired by Dedan from OFF but has changed a lot since.
- The artbook also reveals that the "Confused" sprites were drawn by "Guzusuru", but were omitted since Toby Fox thought they looked too good.
- In the Japanese localization for Undertale, Papyrus uses an old japanese writing form. His text goes from right to left and the symbols are written vertically. This is supposed to reference the papyrus font's old and antique look.
  - He also refers to himself as "Ore-Sama" (俺様) which is the most arrogant thing a person could call themselves.
Despite wanting to catch a human, in most AUs, he doesn't know what a human looks like.
Canon Papyrus does not, despite being annoyed by Sans and Toriel, hate puns. He even says a few of his own during the game:
- (When called at the dump) "I ALWAYS MAKE PEOPLE FEEL BETTER... WHEN THEY'RE DOWN IN THE DUMPS!!!

"

- (When first meeting him) "AS FOR YOUR WORK? PUT A LITTLE MORE "BACKBONE" INTO IT!

"

Toby Fox himself has admitted that Papyrus is 14-years-old.

Gallery

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