The point of this post is relatively simple; I’ve come to the conclusion that Gaster is going to be in the UT official Tarot deck, in spite of misgivings leading to people believing he won’t be there. Don’t worry, I can back this up.
I Don’t Know What You’re Talking About
The short version of the story is: dogbomber made a fan set of UT tarot cards. One of these cards, ‘The Hermit,’ featured Gaster. His work has been on preorder on fangamer as official UT merch for months now, but Gaster’s place seems to have been taken by Gerson in the new art.
So, it’s pretty common to think that he was just totally removed from the deck at Toby’s behest. I’m here to say that it’s not the case.
They Were Released At PAX. We Would Know.
They were on display at PAX, that much we know. I’ve done my best to try to find pictures them, but … There are cards we haven’t seen, yet. I’ve been looking for confirmation on this, but I really do believe that cards were on display at PAX, but not available for purchase. Because, again, Gaster is definitelyone of the cards, (which I’ll cover in a moment) and we would have seen pictures of him by now.
And that means one of two things. One, that the cards on display are accurate, but did not show the full set. Or two, that the cards themselves are false.
That Still Sounds Conspiratorial!
Yeah, it does. That’s why I have something else on my side to prove my point to you: third grade math.
You can count them. I welcome you to check and double-check my math. Including the joke cards at the end, which are probably going to be turned into minor arcana, there are 26 designs on display.
These are the only other Undertale tarot cards Dogbomber ever made.
When the fangamer site says ‘26 old designs by dogbomber,’ there is literally nothing else that they could be talking about.
26 old designs. 10 new designs. 36 designs together. And do you know what card is still there, one of the original 26 designs? Gaster.
Remember how I said those are the only other cards he ever made? Gaster has to be that deck. Gerson took his place as The Hermit, but Gaster still has to be there, because otherwise there’s simply not enough cards for fangamer to give us what it promises.
He’s not The Hermit anymore, though. So the real question we should be asking ourselves is … Where did Toby tell dogbomber to move Gaster to?
We now know that Gaster was not just ‘removed’ from this to keep him out of merchandise, but because Toby looked at the spread of tarot cards and said; ‘Gaster fits better HERE.’ So between now and when the cards are truly revealed, I’d like to leave you all with a question …
So what is the “something else” that might begin development in 2016? We have some hints.
First, unless he’s changed his mind (which is, you know, allowed), it seems to have something to do with the world of Undertale.
The “other game” is listed as being something that will show “more of the world of Undertale and its characters”, and there is, again, the tagline, “Its very nature is shrouded in darkness”.
So what might this have to do with Gaster?
Well, apparently it has to do with looking for “hidden secrets” like “triple bossfights against wingdings”. (tweet can be found by searching “undertale its very nature is shrouded in darkness“)
And Gaster’s lab entry 17 reads as follows…
“ENTRY NUMBER SEVENTEEN
DARK DARKER YET DARKER THE DARKNESS KEEPS GROWING THE SHADOWS CUTTING DEEPER PHOTON READINGS NEGATIVE THIS NEXT EXPERIMENT SEEMS VERY VERY INTERESTING
WHAT DO YOU TWO THINK?”
On top of that, the NPC Suzy, who never appears, seems to have gained importance in the patch. In the patch, this line has been added to the dialogue.
* Her name is “Suzy”. * I feel like you two should& be friends. * You have… * A neighbor’s blessing!!! * Not knowing where I live is no issue. * Fate finds a way. * In life’s grand scheme, she might be why you came here in the first place…
After this, if you check Sans’s lab you’ll find a drawing you couldn’t find before, of “three smiling people”.
There’s also the remaining mystery of what this…
machine in the True Lab is, and what exactly Alphys stopped herself from saying to Frisk here…
…about the CORE, which Gaster created.
And while we’re talking about Gaster, I’m going to point out a few lines that seemed off to me.
Apparently his experiments went wrong, and he fell into the CORE. But you do experiments in the lab, right? How did he end up falling from the CORE after his experiments failed?
Why is Alphys in particular – out of all the many monsters you find in the CORE, especially around bridges – at danger from falling from a great height into the CORE like Gaster did after a failure?
The fall into the CORE was never described as an accident.
Here I go again adding to this monster – me and @napstamuse got into a chat together, and we came up with another related theory, this time regarding Sans’ lab. The fandom already put forward the idea that the room is somehow “reset-proof”, and there’s lots of evidence for this; Gaster’s machine, blueprints seemingly written in Wingdings, the photo of you and your friends appearing there post-pacifist, and most recently the “Don’t Forget” picture.
But why is Sans’ labreset-proof?
Well, if we go by Napsta’s post and assume that the ‘Dead Timeline’ was shattered by Gaster’s actions, and that the ‘Goners’ are the remains of NPCs from that timeline, then it’s safe to assume that Gaster wasn’t the only thing scattered across time and space. When the Dead Timeline broke, everything was scattered. So that includes people, and objects, andplaces.
We already know that Sans has the ability to manipulate ‘doors’ (a ‘door’, in video game coding terms, means anywhere you can walk off screen and end up somewhere else) so he ends up somewhere completely different. Nowhere seems to be out of bounds, and he’s even proven he’s able to move large objects along with him, like his sentry station with the snow still on the roof. So if there was a piece of the Dead Timeline out there, still somehow intact, who’s to say he wouldn’t be able to open a ‘shortcut’ right into it?
Which brings us to Sans’ lab, a room which is never mentioned at all by anyone in the game, and is even around the back of Sans and Papyrus’ house, a place where you wouldn’t think would be possible to go. Not even Sans himself will tell you where the second key is or where to use it after he pranks you. It’s almost like it doesn’t exist… or it at least doesn’t exist in the ‘Alpha Timeline’, the reconstructed world in which Undertale now takes place.
That’s why Gaster’s machine and blueprints are here. That’s why the “don’t forget” picture is here. Sans’ lab – or maybe Gaster’s Lab – is a fragment of the Dead Timeline, just like the ‘Mystery Man’ room. Heck, a slowed-down version of “It’s raining somewhere else” is playing here – perhaps implying that you really have stepped into “somewhere else”. That could explain how this room has seemingly survived Gaster’s disappearance, even though all traces of his work should have been erased. The room is “reset proof” because it’s outside the timeline that’s being reset.
This little slice of ‘home’ is no doubt a very important thing to Sans, so it’s no wonder the only way that players can see this room is when he’s determined they aren’t a threat to the timeline. When the player reloads over and over after his spiel about LV and EXP, and he realizes he’s seeing time travel first hand, that could be the moment in Pacifist (versus Genocide’s timelines coming to an end) that he realizes he’s dealing with “the anomaly”. And maybe it’s also the moment he realizes that we don’t want to destroy, but learn more about their world. And about him. That’s why we keep coming back, that’s why we keep looking, even though it looks like he’s messing with us.
It’s only when Sans trusts you that much that he’s willing to show you the truth; the last remnant of the world he came from.
I love the snippet about the music in there. When you think about the fact that the only other place “It’s Raining Somewhere Else” is when Sans is talking to you about wanting to go home…
I mean, we know how significant the music is in this game. It seems totally possible that this was meant to be a hint: Sans literally comes from “somewhere else”.
Also along the lines of Sans being able to manipulate doors (thanks for adding our convo to the post btw, this was a great thought!!) we can actually see Sans change what’s behind the door to his room around.
For one, you can see a weird fire-like light coming from behind Sans’ door…
..When the room behind it clearly doesn’t have anything in it that could be causing that light.
And also, even though it’s played off as you walking on a treadmill in the dark..
..You’re clearly walking in the wrong direction for it to be the treadmill.
Also, when the lights flip on, it makes the same sound when Sans does his flicker attack during your fight with him. This is the sound of him using his spacial manipulation. It’s just in this case, he’s using it to play a prank on you.
So I think it’s not only possible but probable that Sans’ lab is reset-proof because it’s actually a small piece of the dead timeline.
Considering that Gaster is slowly becoming more and more canon, I think we need to pay very close attention to Sans’ lab in any future patches.
its my headcanon, despite that there is basically 0 information on Gaster and he’s not even a “real character” is that he’s nice. He just seems creepy bc hes caught in a creepy and sad situation where he can only ever be a voyeur on the world he fell out of. I mean, if he was a monster, monster souls can’t persist without kindness and love. So if he’s still got a soul, he must still in some sense be nice.
I mean like the entire point of the game is that there are no “monsters.” No “abominations.” No “sinister other.” Only people who have cut themselves off, or have been cut off, from caring for those around them. So that people treat Gaster as a terrifying presence that Should Not Be bugs me because that right there is the entire concept of “monster.” And our ordinary mindset is dedicated to eradicating these anomalies from our norm. Which is what the game deconstructs as evil.
honestly just really like undertale 
