Vignettes From Yellow - BFA's Interpretation - BlackFlagArmada - Undertale (Video Game) [Archive of Our Own]

Connected to my review of Undertale Yellow, this is a brief series of vignettes in various formats demonstrating what I wrote in greater detail. I'm particularly interested in themes of justice and arbitration.

Chapter 1: Genocide Martlet Rewritten

Summary:

My reinterpretation of Martlet's conduct during the Genocide Route. This should amend the odd trifurcation of her personality seen in the Genocide Route (The innocence, the laziness, and the taunting aspect of her.) This is only my interpretation, however.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Pre-battle: Snowdin.

"Hello... l-look. I understand. I really do. It's scary down here. You don't know where you are or where you're going, and monsters are everywhere. A-and if I were in your shoes... I think I'd do the same. I want to help. I think we can... put this behind us. What's your name?"

"Clover? That's a nice name. I've told everyone to evacuate, and we can wait here until you calm down. Don't worry, I'll keep you-"

Battle Start

"Hey, what're you doing? There's no need to fight. I don't want to hurt you!"

Martlet can be spared at will in this version of the fight.

Header text: Martlet seems concerned.

First Strike

"Ow! Ow... okay... okay... it's okay. Maybe we can put the gun down?"

Second Attack

"Ow! Ow! Ow! L-look! I know it's scary, but you can't attack everyone! There are a lot of monsters down here, and I can't protect you from everyone!"

Third Attack

"G-gah! I... I'm trying to help! This... this isn't coming from f-fear..."

Header text: Blue feathers litter the ground.

Fourth Attack

"Th-there are those who haven't... evacuated yet. I'm sorry, Clover. I don't want to do this..."

Martlet begins attacking here.

Fifth Attack

"It's not too late!"

Martlet must be apologized to first before being spared.

Header text: Martlet holds back tears.

Sixth Attack

"There are much nastier guards than me out there! Please stop!"

Seventh Attack

"We don't need to fight. I'm sure we'd all understand if you... explained."

Eighth Attack

"Why..? Was it... t-the other children?"

Ninth Attack

"I don't hate you. I... I understand. But it wasn't us!"

Tenth Attack

"I feared this would happen for y-years..."

Header text: Martlet chokes back a sob.

Eleventh Attack

"What do you think will happen if you k-k..."

Defeated

"Okay... okay... you won. I won't attack. Please... lower your weapon."

Battle menu closes.

"Thank you. There... it's not all bad. You're walking down a dangerous path. I... I understand humans and monsters don't exactly see eye-to-eye, but be careful. There are a lot of people out there who won't be so nice. Maybe stay here for a while, and try not to hurt anyone else, okay? Things will get ugly if you keep doing this."

Act: Apologize

"I-it's okay. I don't think everyone will accept, but... it's a start. Let's take it easy, okay? I'll keep an eye out for you."

Martlet stops attacking and can be spared.

If you continue down the path of genocide, sparing Martlet does not alter the game's course. However, you can turn to a Neutral ending.

Post Battle: Spare

"..."

"Phew..."

"Isn't that better?"

"Monsters can be scary, but we can also be understanding. Try not to hurt anyone else, okay? I'm sure we'll all get along if you try."

"I'll try to make things easier for you, but it'll be our secret. If you're scared, try running away and taking a breather."

---

Continued Path:

Martlet is encountered again as in the original game, just before the Wild East Town.

"I... see you haven't... listened."

"It won't bring them back."

"It isn't justice. We didn't hurt them, the King... took them."

"Clover, do you want to know a secret? I don't like what he's doing either."

"It's horrifying. They were just kids. Scared, lost, confused..."

"I don't want to fight. I don't want anyone getting hurt."

"It... I haven't slept well..."

"B-but... I need to keep an eye on you. The Royal Guard are out for you now."

"I know there's something good in you. There's something good in everyone."

"We can still turn things around. If we-"

Clover pulls the gun.

"I'm sorry!"

Martlet flies off.

Narration: Blue feathers and tears litter the ground.

Final Showdown: UG Apartments

"..."

"I'm sorry."

"I'm so sorry."

"I..."

"Was it my fault?"

Martlet turns about.

"If this is what humans are like..."

The battle menu appears.

"I can't let you hurt anyone else."

"Maybe I should've done this from the start."

"..."

"There's no justice in this."

The transformation sequence transpires as canon.

Check:
MARTLET: IN MY WAY

Flashback sequence on scene transition:

Martlet: I got a job! I got a job!

Chujin: Stopped laying about? Where'd you-

Martlet: The Royal Guard accepted me!

Chujin: ...

Martlet: What? I totally aced the entry exams!

Chujin: You're... in danger.

Martlet: Huh? All I need to do is make puzzles, and we've been doing that-

Chujin: Your REAL job.

Martlet: I know it's been... rough, but-

Chujin: Humans are merciless. Incapable of decency in any form. They may look innocent, but it's kill or be killed with them.

Martlet: I... don't know. There's got to be a good human out there, somewhere.

Chujin: I hope you're right. If you aren't...

Chujin hands something to Martlet.

Martlet: This is... a needle.

Chujin: It's something I'm working on. In an emergency, it'll give you the strength to kill anyone, even a human.

Martlet: Um... why only in an emergency?

Chujin: Because it will kill you too.

Phase 2 begins.

"..."

"I still want to believe."

"Humans aren't all evil... right?"

...

"I won't let you through!"

...

"N-no!"

"They still need me!"

...

"Why?!"

"Why did you do this!?"

"What did you gain!?"

...

"It hurts..."

"I... can't..."

"I..."

"I'm... s-sorry..."

...

Battle end.

"How many more?"

"How many?"

"...I'd have... helped you."

"I-if... you... showed... justice."

"You're a killer, not a judge."

"N-no!"

"Wait!"

"HELP!"

"CLOVER!"

"PLEASE!"

"HELP... ME..."

Notes:

Martlet's personality fluctuates horribly across the Genocide Route. She taunts the player as early as Snowdin but also says she wants to help at the Dunes. Her dialogue is inconsistent with her innocent character, or her lazier character. While this isn't a perfect work, I think it's a more consistent and tragic character as she doesn't want to admit anyone is innately bad.

Chapter 2: Pacifist Martlet Date (May Be Expanded)

Chapter Text

Martlet pulled Clover up to the small wooden platform on the roof of her house and hugged them close, sheltering them from the bitter cold air of Snowdin. The mysterious light that illuminated the underground dimmed slightly and she sighed. Clover returned the hug and looked up at her, concern across their features. The unspoken question cut into her: why are we hiding away here?

"Well..." Martlet cleared her throat. "I wanted to ask, what brought you down here?"

Clover handed a piece of paper to Martlet. A list of names, faces, and numbers. Five missing children and the phone numbers of their parents if they were to be found.

Martlet closed her eyes and shuddered. "They're... not coming back to the surface." Martlet hated the way Clover paused when they were judging someone. She knew a human could kill almost any monster with ease. She knew humans were dangerous. Chujin told her they were wicked to the core. That wasn't why she hated that pause, though. She hated it because every time Clover tipped their hat down and breathed in that slow, measured way, she felt her sins wrap around her throat, and she sweated despite the freezing temperatures.

Clover said nothing.

Martlet shuffled uncomfortably on the edge of the deck. "Long ago humanity and monsters went to war. Humans sealed monsters behind a magical barrier, and it can only be broken by seven human souls united. King Asgore wants to break that barrier."

Clover lowered their head and sighed.

Something tiny broke inside Martlet and she choked back tears. "I... I saw... o-one of the previous humans. It... it wasn't far from here..."

Clover looked up at her. The pressure mounted. Her lungs seized up, her heart hammered in her chest. Clover would never hurt her, but their gaze bored a hole straight through her.

"I haven't slept well since then. I asked myself... was humanity right? Every time we've seen one... we've... you know. A-and... I started thinking: is it really so bad to be down here? We're safe. We're thriving. People say they're miserable all the time, but it doesn't... w-well... everyone who's in pain feels bad because they're focusing on the barrier and not others. Starlo seems happy. W-well... because you helped him, but still. All you did was show him his friends mattered and cared. Despite everything, being with you has been the best day of my life."

Clover rubbed their chin and gazed out at Snowdin, weighing their options. Martlet gasped for air. A picture could say a thousand words, but Clover's silence was an entire novel's worth of eloquent and incisive oration.

"I... I don't believe in the war anymore. I don't think the surface means anything. Maybe we deserve to be down here forever but every day that passes, everyone gets more desperate to break the barrier. Some people are doing... awful things to do that. If we stay down here too long..."

Clover looked up.
[MONSTERS DESERVE FREEDOM]
[MONSTERS ARE SAFER SEALED AWAY]

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Comments

StallKing on Chapter 2 Mon 25 Dec 2023 03:30AM UTC

Once more, there's a question that it seems a lot of people fail to ask. Seven human souls are needed to break the barrier, but does that mean that a monster needed to absorb seven souls? I honestly feel like the monsters might have jumped to conclusions.
I'll make a crazy theory here based on nothing but the voices in my head.
It's said the war started because humans feared the monster's power to absorb souls. It was also said that nit a single human died in the war, so either the monsters were merciful, or too weak. Second option is more likely, especially when you consider that a single human child with enough hatred than literally wipe the Underground out.
If I'm not mistaken, the barrier was made by human wizards, and considering magic is basically a monster thing, what if the barrier wasn't made to trap the monsters, but to protect them?
It's said that anyone could cross the barrier, but is that really true? Because I find it very hard to believe that it's a coincidence that only children ever feel down. As we see in the end of Undertale's TP, the exit from the Underground didn't seem that hidden.
So, what if the wizards were actually monster sympathizers, and they made the barrier to protect them? Also, maybe the barrier could be broken if seven humans worked together to do so. So, the humans didn't need to die in the first place.
The sad thing about that would be that all deaths were pointless in the end, but I wouldn't call them sacrifices when none of the humans (except Clover if you consider his TP ending as Canon) had a choice in the matter. Nothing justifies killing an innocent child.

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1. BlackFlagArmada on Chapter 2 Mon 25 Dec 2023 08:01PM UTC
  
  That's an excellent series of questions, and I somewhat poked this with Martlet presupposing that it's safer Underground than on the surface. While there's nothing falsifiable about your theory, the problem with it is that I'm filtering this through my rewritten Martlet's mouth here. She's a conscientious objector to the war and she's more fixated on the innate disgusting nature of killing children than postulating why the barrier was erected at all. It is a reasonable idea - especially considering humanity could've annihilated monsters outright and didn't (if we take everything given prior as true.)
  Since I'm filtering this through dialogue, I also don't want to directly state some concepts. For instance, Martlet doesn't explicitly condemn killing kids: she doesn't say the word die or kill in this vignette. What she knows and what she thinks must also combine with the fundamentals of good dialogue to make a statement, thus I danced around the issues at hand here to allow readers to fill in the gaps.
  
  Last Edited Mon 25 Dec 2023 08:02PM UTC
  
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2. 1. StallKing on Chapter 2 Mon 25 Dec 2023 09:18PM UTC
    
    Yeah, I'm questioning more the concept of the barrier itself and not how you wrote Martlet here. I loved how you did it and I think it's actually pretty in character with her. The way she was presented in Undertale Yellow felt a lot like she was this version's Papyrus. A innocent being that wants to see good in everyone.
    Honestly, I don't think most monsters are actually aware of the implications that breaking the barrier and starting a war against humanity entails. As I said in another comment, I doubt most of the current monsters in the Underground actually lived in the war period. Other than Asgore, Toriel, Gerson, and *****maybe***** the ghost monsters, I'd say that everyone was born Underground, and probably only heard stories about the war. And we know that books really romanticize wars.
    Well, I'm pretty sure Toby Fox said somewhere that the TP ending in Undertale was really a happy ending and that the monsters managed to live in peace with humanity, so that's something. Still, I think it's sad how only in the Neutral Endings we even see the human souls having any importance.
    After the TP ending, if I remember correctly the coffins in the coffin room are open, which ***might*** imply that the souls went back to their bodies. But I honestly doubt that, and if it did happen, I think that's a very cheap way to deal with their deaths. It's basically a "it's okay that they died, they came back now."
    The thing I wish was more explored in Undertale Yellow was the so called Snowdin incident, which seems to be the reason for Chujin's hatred for humans, and Dalv's fear of them. There's a secret tape behind Chujin's grave that tells a little more about it. According to it, the human killed a few monsters, and almost killed Kanako as well, then they fled to Waterfall, and Chujin sent Axis after them. Axis killed the human, and Chujin held on the soul for a while, which is most likely how he made his serum. The corruption in the Serum might be LV?
    He also said that he "hid the evidence" which seems to indicate that the human in question was the dark blue soul, which had the ballet shoes and tutu. Which is interesting since in Undertale they are pretty well hidden, and when you examine them, they are described as "dusty."
    
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  2. 1. BlackFlagArmada on Chapter 2 Mon 25 Dec 2023 09:37PM UTC
      
      Yellow's in an awkward spot because the more it fleshes out the "incident" the less it'd be impactful or matter. The fact it's so tangential is a boon because of how the game drops the ball on dealing with darker things. It's somewhat overblown at times, especially with Ceroba that it's hard to believe much. Perhaps I'm thinking on Disney Star Wars lines where "less is more" is my mantra.
      As things stand, I'm out of things to say on Yellow, I had a whole review and can't muster all that much effort to rewrite Ceroba, expanding Dalv doesn't appeal to me. I think I'm running out of things to say on Undertale as a whole and I'm admittedly glad it's happening. I can turn to other projects now.
      
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    2. 1. StallKing on Chapter 2 Mon 25 Dec 2023 09:47PM UTC
        
        Fair enough
        
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      2. BlackFlagArmada on Chapter 2 Mon 25 Dec 2023 10:09PM UTC
        
        I'm sorry about that, but yeah. I've got nothing left to say that isn't recapping stuff from elsewhere or would necessitate another do-over of everything. After a while, the lines blur and I'm not sure if I'm talking about Undertale, Undertale Yellow, the fandom, or something I misremembered.
        
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        StallKing on Chapter 2 Mon 25 Dec 2023 10:18PM UTC
        
        No worries. I know that for myself when my brain fixates in something, it stays like this for a long time (and I have a tendency to ramble a lot and don't realize when people are done with the subject, so sorry about that), so I'll probably be thinking about those things for a while, but I know most people aren't like this.
        I'll probably be referencing this work for interactions with Martlet when I start writing, I hope you don't mind. This was very well written.
        
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        BlackFlagArmada on Chapter 2 Tue 26 Dec 2023 12:52AM UTC
        
        Thank you. If you want assistance with rewriting Martlet, I can lend a hand, even if I'm out of things to say on Undertale.
        
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        StallKing on Chapter 2 Tue 26 Dec 2023 01:12AM UTC
        
        I was intending to translate Undertale Yellow in a fanfic format, basically putting Clover's adventure giving more personality to him and the characters. But I honestly didn't know how to translate all the walking around without making things boring. Most of the game outside fights is simply walking from a place to the next and solving puzzles.
        So I decided to change it. Instead I'll do something similar to what you did here, with the chapter in a format of hangouts with Clover and one or more characters.
        
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        BlackFlagArmada on Chapter 2 Tue 26 Dec 2023 12:08PM UTC
        
        Doing vignettes is the right call. Novelizations of games usually fall flat because massive portions of games are, well, games. Trying to write it out is boring to read and write. However, a series of character vignettes in rough order - approaching Dalv, a date with Dalv, leaving Dalv, approaching Martlet, etc... would be better, even if it isn't tight writing (a lot of "and then this happened" would be necessary).
        
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        StallKing on Chapter 2 Tue 26 Dec 2023 12:33PM UTC
        
        Yeah, I'm mostly lost on where to start. And how to split things.
        Like, a single multi-chapter work where each chapter is a different, or a multi-work series where each work focus on a different character? I could see myself going with either.
        I do want it to (kinda) have a beginning, middle, and end, though. (Whether the end is a happy ending for Clover, or the sacrifice ending, is still up do debate)
        I have a few rough ideas for each character. A few light hearted (like drawing with Dalv, or playing around with Starlo and the Fesity Five) and some heavier (mostly with Ceroba). Martlet is an interesting character that can have both heavy and light hearted conversations.
        
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        BlackFlagArmada on Chapter 2 Tue 26 Dec 2023 02:19PM UTC
        
        If you want a rough three-act structure, keep a single work. I'd say you'd start with the approach to Dalv.
        
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        StallKing on Chapter 2 Tue 26 Dec 2023 02:32PM UTC
        
        Yeah, this is probably the best approach.
        Also, I just realized how hard Dalv is to write. We barely interact with the guy. I wish there was a little more to work on. He kinda reminds me of Napstablook in how awkward they are, though Dalv seems a little less anxious.
        But the only things I know about Dalv is, he likes to draw child's books. He likes corn (and I believe the corn he plants in the ruins came from the Starlo's family's farm). He plays the organ (apparently he's not very good at it). And his best friends are a broom and a baloon with a drawed face.
        I guess a hangout with him could be something like Clover help him fix the cabin in Snowdin he's going to move in. Him teaching Clover to draw, or play something. Artwork from the author seems to indicate that Clover plays the harmonica (The cowboy plays the harmonica. How original)
        I might start with Martlet instead since she seems easier to write.
        
        Last Edited Tue 26 Dec 2023 02:33PM UTC
        
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        BlackFlagArmada on Chapter 2 Tue 26 Dec 2023 06:15PM UTC
        
        I turned Glyde into a semi-major character in a bizarre work. When you're given something like Dalv, you color in between the points. You have A, T, and Z. You can now fill in BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRS UVWXYZ as you wish.
        
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avint30 on Chapter 1 Fri 22 Dec 2023 06:16PM UTC

REAL I LOVE THIS!! I WOULD THINK THAT MARTLET WOULD STILL BELIEVE IN CLOVER IN A WAY YET SHE FEELS LIKE SHE HAS TO PUNISH CLOVER FOR WHAT THEY HAVE DONE AND ITS SO SAD THAT IN THE TRUE PACI ENDING CLOVER MOST LIKELY LOOKED UP TO MARTLET AS A MOTHER FIGURE IN SOME WAY :(( i wish there was a way to spare martlet in genocide but it's like you've gone to far to receive that mercy now

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MLF (Guest) on Chapter 1 Sat 23 Dec 2023 06:39AM UTC

I ended up reading this one first and it’s so good!!!! It made me empathize with her pains wishing to stick to innocence and naivety, and her having a heart too soft for the atrocities being both her best strength and flaw (both what she might have saw at Alphys’s lab as well as with the player now). she’s now finally at the point where she have to face her job as a guard, even though it hurts her to face that her mentor’s worldview on human and cruelty turned out to be right - and rightfully pinning clover’s indiscriminate violence towards the monsters as unjust. I felt how having this consistency for her also enhances what we would’ve already knew about her from pacifist route (plus your addition about her exhaustion), and the situation comes off to me as her using an outwardly exaggerated optimism to justify to herself that everything is going to be fine, even though she had been jaded and exhausted from knowing too much and everything finally being revealed in an ultimate act of cruelty

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