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Sans
Sans undertale
Series Undertale
Age Adult
Birthday Unknown
Sex Male
Species Skeleton monster
Height Unknown
Weight Unknown
Alignment Chaotic Good
It's a beautiful day outside. Birds are singing, flowers are blooming... On days like these, kids like you...

S H O U L D - B E - B U R N I N G - I N - H E L L.

~ Sans

Sans is a character appearing in the indie role-playing video game Undertale, developed and published by Toby Fox.

Background:[]

Sans is a skeleton that with his brother Papyrus, showed up in the town of Snowdin out of nowhere. Sans is laid-back and lazy. a human child named Frisk showed up in the Underground, When they entered Snowdin for the first time, Sans was there to meet them. Sans told them about Papyrus, who hoped to capture a human to become a member of the Underground's Royal Guard, and asked if Frisk would show themself to Papyrus just to make him happy to see a human. Frisk agreed, and while Papyrus didn't capture them, Frisk befriended the skeleton brothers. However, Sans still hides several secrets and a large amount of power and skill underneath his laziness, being the one who killed Flowey more times than any monster.

the only way to fight Sans is in the genocide route where Sans is the only one left before they reach King Asgore, break the barrier, and escape to cause havoc on the surface. Sans states that he knows about the player's ability to save and load the game, effectively letting them reset the timeline, and hopes that, even though he can't kill them since they'll just come back, he can still be such a difficult and unfair opponent to beat, that the player just quits the game. It is here that the reason for Sans' laziness is revealed. Because of his knowledge of the save ability, Sans has adopted an extremely nihilistic worldview. He believes that, because time can be reset just by the will of one person, nothing he does matters, since it could be undone in an instant.

Appearance:[]

Sans appears to be a small and thick-boned skeleton, slightly taller than Frisk. Sans is always seen wearing a light-blue parka with a grey hood with black short pants with white lines on them, a white tank-top and salmon moccasins.

He has a large rounded skull shaped similarly to a slice of bread and has large bags under his eye sockets, which have white glowing pupils floating in them. His face is constantly in a smile. His mood is shown through his eyes instead of any facial gestures due to his mouth being apparently locked in a smile, though most headcanons will show him frowning occasionally.

Powers & Abilities:[]

  • Bones: One of Sans' most common attack is to summon bones to attack his opponent. Sans can summon large groups of them easily in complex patterns with great speed, making these attacks some of the hardest to dodge in the entire game. Sans can also summon blue bones that only deal damage when moving, harmlessly passing through if you're still. Sans' bones can be used as projectiles and platforms, the bones don't do much damage, only 1 damage point per hit, but his karmic retribution (see ability 3) and the number of the makes the fight hard nonetheless.
  • Gaster Blasters: Portable laser cannons shaped like dragon skulls that Sans can summon at will. They levitate off the ground and fire at Sans' will, and Sans can summon as many as he wants. He can send out multiple at a time and surround his foe in a circle, for multiple blaster shots.
  • Soul Manipulation: Blue Mode: the second most common attack for sans, Blue Mode grants Sans the ability to make enemy souls affected by gravity. While affected by Blue Mode, enemies have their movement heavily restricted, and are only able to jump to move. Sans can also use this to lift and move his opponents soul, letting him slam them around with relatively small physical movements compared to what he's doing.
  • Karmic Retribution [KR]: Sans' bones and Gaster Blaster attacks inflict the Karmic Retribution effect [KR]. KR acts like poison, marking a portion of your health bar pink, which will slowly disappear, giving you a chance to heal before you die if your entire bar turns pink. KR is what makes the Sans fight commonly known as the hardest in the game. Canon information about it is pretty vague. We can infer that KR stand for Karmic Retribution or similar, and it likely only affects people who have done evil. The more evil. the more retribution. Though, this is all speculation, and there is no canon explanation.
  • Larger Than Average Stomach: Sans can consume more hot dogs than any other monster within the Underground. As a skeleton, it's unknown where the hot dogs go, as Sans lacks a digestive tract.
  • Teleportation: Sans can teleport himself, his opponents and his attacks at will. He normally calls this a "Shortcut". He uses this ability in battle to dodge attacks and to make it harder to dodge his attacks.
  • Intelligence: Sans is one of the smartest characters in the game, there are hints that he's a scientist in the secret room behind his house. There's a Quantum Physics book found in his house, and he's friends with the royal scientist Alphys.
  • Fourth Wall Awareness: Sans is fully aware of the fourth wall and that he is in a video game, he abuses the RPG (Role-Playing Game) turn system at the end of the battle by dragging out his own turn "forever" so you can't take yours. He is fully aware of timeline resets as well, taunting the player by counting how many times they have died.
  • Manipulation: Sans is clever and manipulative when he needs to be, even talking down his brother from capturing you and bringing you to Undyne.
  • Scientific Knowledge: Sans also seems to have a scientific mind, given the Quantum Physics book in his house, commonly theorized to be him trying to escape the resets. His friendship with the royal scientist, Alphys also reinforces this idea.

Feats[]

Awareness:[]

  • Dodged (roughly) 30 attacks from Chara in the genocide route.
  • Dodged an attack while asleep.
  • Can see the fourth wall and abuse that knowledge in fights, using the RPG turn system to stall the fight for a few minutes.
  • Is fully aware of timeline resets and can remember specific events from them.

Strength[]

  • Although he is the weakest character in the game, he is still able to defeat Frisk/Chara and Flowey over time with his attacks.
  • Can move hundreds of kilograms of bones at high speeds.
  • Comparable to his brother Papyrus, who can move and control giant bones.
  • Implied to have killed Frisk/Chara at least 11 times.

Speed[]

  • Can keep up with Frisk, who:
    • Dodged spears thrown at them by Undyne.
    • Can dodge soundwaves shot at them from Greater Dog (767 MpH -- 1234.37 Km/H).
    • Avoided rocks that were traveling with enough speed to catch on fire (Mach 5 -- At least 6,000 Km/H).
    • Dodged electricity
      • Frisk can even be compared to the speed of Vulcan's electric attacks (Mach 6, or ~6,589 Km/H).
  • Sans was even able to out-speed a car on a highway (about 110 Km/H, if common real-world speed limits apply) with his tricycle.

Durability[]

  • Can withstand the heat of Hotland, which is hot enough to evaporate a styrofoam cup.
  • Can survive getting electrified by Flowey.
  • Despite only having 1 DF, he survived long enough to talk and even walk after getting hit for 99999 damage.

Skill[]

  • Defeated and killed Flowey several times.
  • Put up a tough fight against Chara/Frisk, who can kill almost every monster in the underground with ease.
  • Possesses extremely fast, almost unreadable attacks.

Weaknesses[]

  • Laziness: Sans will only give a fight at all if it's absolutely necessary. He doesn't like putting in effort and has even fallen asleep during the battle to save the last few monsters alive if he has to wait for too long.
  • Low Stats: While difficult to beat due to his skills, varied attacks and dodging prowess, Sans has the lowest stats of any enemy in Undertale, with 1 ATK (Attack) and 1 DEF (Defence). Each of his attacks does one point of damage, though Karmic Retribution (one point of damage per frame of contact with the attack) and the sheer number of attacks he uses at once helps remedy this. Not to mention, while he does technically only do 1 point of damage, it's one point of damage every frame, though most headcanons will refer to it as one point of damage every millisecond. However, one good hit can take him out, which is why he needs to dodge. He cannot simply "stand there and take it", like the other Monsters, as he says himself.

Fun Facts[]

  • Sans is left-handed, seeing as he gives handshakes, holds a bottle, and uses magic with his left hand.
  • Sans' text boxes are always in the Comic Sans MS font.
  • Sans is most likely closer to a druagr (I have no idea what that says, someone just left it there. Either "dragon" or "drugger"?) than a skeleton, as he bleeds in the final fight. Most headcanons will explain this with rows of ketchup bottles stored in his jacket, which has logic behind it, seeing as it's his favorite food, and he seems to always have it on him.
  • Sans has a secret lab hidden behind his house.
  • Sans and Papyrus as characters were based on Steak and Mr. Heavens from the webcomic Helvetica. Their names were inspired by the title character, Helvetica.
  • His battle theme was once played for the pope, and he enjoyed it.
  • He was crowned the Ultimate Tumblr Sexyman in the September 2022's semiannual sexyman showdown.
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