dead-dove-moment:

everyone down there was hoping and hoping for the barrier to be broken.

interestingly, although monsters seem mainly in agreement about the idea, among players, the idea is controversial.

asriel articulates that hesitance, too, in his own way.

the outside world has… malevolence on a scale that’s rare to find in the underground. perhaps it would be safer to remain below, and forget the horizon and the stars.

and yet.

and yet. monsters long for the outside world. the argument they always make is that the underground is cramped. uncomfortable. and it’s getting worse, as is to be expected. you have a finite space, and a population within it that can grow.

the space gets filled up. elbow room decreases. options decrease. (see: onionsan. people moving to snowdin because new home is getting too full.)

and we experience that, too, in another way. but this time, it’s flowey who articulates it.

the underground is the place where the game is played. there’s only so much space or time. there’s only so many people. there’s only so many ways the story can go. it’s corrosive; there are really only two ways it can end:

• give up on life (that is, accept the end and stop playing), or
• start doing stuff you can’t take back

a lot of undertale fanwork also expresses this frustration. the fact that, once you’ve played through, and once you know some of the other stuff that happens… there’s really not much left to see.

the underground is a vivid, living world. it’s a kind world. but it’s a small world.

thinking of it that way – thinking of that frustration that we, too, experience – is it any wonder that the monsters are willing to risk reigniting an unwinnable war, just so that their horizons can open up again?

The outside world has no roads. But you can always build new roads. That’s why we must go. As we travel, the world will get bigger by that much, I’m sure.

– E-ko/F-ko/Utena, Adolescence of Utena

What kind of world lies outside of the well?
Is it something that is worth struggling for?

What kind of world lies outside of the well?
Is it something so attractive enough to fall and try over and over again?

What kind of world lies outside of the well?
Let’s enjoy taking the pains of finding that out.

If I reach the world that yearn for, it must be a spectacular world.
Even if that world was just the bottom of another well.

– Frederika Bernkastel, Higurashi no naku koro ni