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lefthanded-sans · 7 years

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I was wondering.... what are your headcanons for the ages of Sans, Papyrus, Undyne, Alphys, Asgore, Toriel, Frisk, Chara, Asriel and MTT?

Ooh, this is a very fun topic! In one of my fanfictions that I still haven’t posted online, I tried to do some timeline reconstruction and came up with dates. Not all the dates were 100% what I feel like would happen in Undertale (certain plot events needed to happen at certain times, so I aged Alphys up to 32), so I’ll tweak them for the purpose of being close to what I feel might decently align with UT canon:

1981 Sans born1986 Alphys born (a little early, but that was to fit with my fic’s events)1991 Undyne born1995 Papyrus born1998 Sans starts college2002 Sans starts PhD2007 Sans earns PhD2010 Gaster dies2012 Alphys “makes” Mettaton2013 Papyrus graduates high school2013 Alphys becomes Royal Scientist2015 Frisk arrives

By these dates, I have Sans at 34, Alphys at 29, Undyne at 24, and Papyrus at 19. Yes, thirteen and a half year age gap between Skelebros - will explain below. Not mentioned in your question, but if you’re curious, I had Gaster die at 54 in my fic.

Papyrus: 17-22 (broadly); prefer 19.5

I believe that Papyrus is a young adult, but only just a young adult. Papyrus has an energetic eagerness that belies youth, and arguably seems less knowledgeable about day-to-day living… but at the same time, he is old enough to be a candidate for the monarch position in the Neutral Ending.

Papyrus’ age is often talked about in reference to his online username, coolskeleton95, which as some have theorized gives his birthdate as 1995 (0r 2095, I suppose, if you hold to UT-in-the-future theories). Undertale was released in 2015, and although the game’s calendars refer to dates as 201X, the point still stands that 201X means that the game is supposed to hit at the present time as you are most likely playing the game. So that means somewhere around 2015 is a great date to “estimate” how old Papyrus is, in which case, he’s nineteen or twenty in the game. Arguably, you could drop his age even lower because Undertale was in development for several years, so technically Undertale could take place before 2015. That’s why I’m giving the broader “okay” range of 17-22. But I like nineteen and a half best.

It’s to note that Papyrus’ personality suggests that he is fairly youthful. It’s not just that he seems to be eager and, depending on your interpretation of his character, naive. His personality also seems to meld with the psychological profile of a teenager. Papyrus is psychologically struggling in the areas that lots of teenagers undergo: the desire to fit in, be popular, do what’s cool, be liked by everyone, and have enjoyable social interactions with others. From my experience (as someone who is 24), by the time an individual reaches their mid-20s, they don’t care that much about being “cool” or being loved by everyone in a popularity contest. I and most of my friends are pretty chill with just being ourselves even if that means not everyone likes us - who cares? So Papyrus’ social-oriented attitude (and simultaneous little personal knowledge of what it’s like to date) could also psychologically suggest a younger age.

The last thing that always screams “Papyrus is YOUNG” is the fact that he does not seem to be making money. He might not even have a paid job - his haphazard, poorly-constructed sentry station is at odds with the other sentry stations. Most of the sentry stations are standard, constructed the same way, as we would expect from the position. A sentry with a real job would be equipped with the materials they need to do a job, not be building their own station. They’re sentries, not construction workers. Undyne training Papyrus to fight but also giving him cooking lessons is also a means for which Undyne can give Papyrus an occupation… if he can learn to cook, she hopes, he can pursue a career there. This means that this guy probably does not have much occupational experience, and, again, might not even have an actual job.

The point about him not really having a job, or at least not much job experience, is solidified with the brothers’ housing situation. Papyrus and Sans live together, but Sans is the one who pays house rent. Usually in two-adult roommate situations, you split the bill 50/50. You are both adults, you’re both capable of taking care of yourselves, you’re both capable of working and making money, ergo, you should both be paying your fair share of the rent. But that’s not what is happening with Papyrus, suggesting that he is or until recently has been a dependent to Sans. And since it’s likely Papyrus and Sans have been living in the Snowdin residency for several years (no boxes, moved-in feel, etc.), Papyrus likely has been partially raised by older, adult Sans.

So… let’s get to Sans.

Sans: Mid-30s (ex: 34)

I love myself an older Sans, and I have my reasons for it, too. I prefer an age gap between the Skelebros of about 11-14 years. At least give it a decade. I know that many people place the brothers’ ages closer together, but I feel as though it makes more sense for Sans to be quite a bit older.

I believe there is evidence suggesting Sans has advanced scientific knowledge and training. In the Genocide Route when he talks about how “our reports showed a massive anomaly in the time-space continuum.” That’s pretty large vocabulary comfortably stated, demonstrating a familiarity with scientific research. This type of scientific research, in fact, involves something almost along the lines of the Many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. After all, according to Undertale, we are given discussion about multiple timelines existing (see Alphys’ comment about studying how multiple timelines exist); in fact, that’s the very thing that the SAVE function does. It allows Frisk to hop between different timelines, where new timelines are created based upon Frisk’s choices. Studying massive anomalies in the time-space continuum is looking at, basically, quantum physics. Oh, and there’s a quantum physics book in the Skelebro’s household. Let’s not forget that.

So if Sans has expert knowledge of quantum physics - and I think there is decent evidence that can suggest he does (I’m not going through all of it now) - then he likely had to be formally educated on the topic. We know that the Underground has at least one graduate school because Temmie wants to go to graduate school. Calling Alphys and Gaster “doctors” suggests they have PhDs in some scientific field. For Sans to be working on a research project about massive anomalies in the time-space continuum, it seems he should probably have an advanced degree in it. Sans could have a PhD.

This already puts Sans above the young 20s range. Most people get their undergraduate in four years and their PhD in minimally five. Nine or more years of schooling means that, at youngest, Sans would be in his late twenties by the time he got his graduate degree in physics. But we also know that Sans had a past where he worked with some official team, moved to Snowdin, became a sentry, and earned an impressive amount of income somewhere along the timeline, so we have to put several years into that at least. By the time we get to all of Sans’ suggested life events, he’s easily fallen into his thirties. Probably mid-thirties.

This also helps make sense about Sans paying all the rent. He has, at least for part of their lives, seemed to be raising Papyrus, given as Papyrus is almost - when Frisk meets him - a dependent. We don’t know how long Sans and Papyrus have lived in Snowdin, but even if it’s been a decent several years, that’s enough age gap for an older brother with a past scientific background to be able to care for a baby brother growing into adulthood.

I am very hardcore on the idea of a large age gap between the Skelebros.

Undyne: 23/24

Undyne’s online username, strongfish91, has also been used as evidence for her age. Again going with my 2015 date, that puts Undyne in her mid-20s, which I do think is in the ballpark given her temperament. Although this would make her young for being the Captain of the Royal Guard, she’s still an old enough age to make responsible decisions… while also being young enough to be emotional and impulsive, as we see her so be. We know that Undyne met Asgore as a child… so this means that she could easily have a decade of fighting experience beneath her, enough for her to be talented enough… and to climb the ranks… to her current position.

Undyne and Papyrus being close ages also makes sense given how well they get along. Although Undyne is older than Papyrus - old enough to have job experience, skills, her own home, and perhaps a little more responsibility - they’re not so far apart in age that they can’t get along splendidly.

Last, Undyne in her mid-20s makes decent sense from a romantic standpoint. A bachelorette in her mid-20s being interested in a relationship is the ballpark age for a dater in our current society. The fact that she seems to be crushing on Alphys might be something typical of younger individuals - usually her actions I’d pin to a teenager in this area - but I suppose I still do know people in their twenties who get flighty and cumbersome with a crush. This is especially true of individuals who don’t have as much romantic experience in the past, and I think that, given how awkward Undyne is about her crush on Alphys, that she isn’t very romantically experienced. It’s feasible for Undyne to be in this age range and acting as she does to Alphys… or, at least, it’s not too completely odd to imagine.

Alphys: 28-30 (prefer 29)

She is Doctor Alphys, which again suggests a PhD. This implies to me that Alphys is older than Undyne… Alphys would need the years to get that PhD, after all. She’s also suggested to be older than the youthful Bratty and Catty, who call her a “big sister.”

At the same time, we get a sense that Alphys is still young and relatively inexperienced in some areas. For instance, her research in the True Lab demonstrates scary scientific methodology breaches that I would hope a more secure and level-headed scientist wouldn’t ever commit. Asgore took a long time to pick a Royal Scientist replacement, suggesting that Alphys wasn’t a well-known… so she could be an up-and-coming scientist, placing her only a few years out from her PhD at most. Her interests and online rants about Mew Mew Kissy Cutie are also something that might put her into a somewhat younger level.

So late twenties for me is that good, ballpark range. She’s old enough to have received her doctorate, but not so old that she’s confident in her scientific research as the Royal Scientist. She’s old enough to be Bratty and Catty’s “big sister,” but not so old to sound “out of place” in youthful online conversations and rants. And having Alphys be five years or so older than Undyne is not a bad age gap for the couple.

Asgore and Toriel: ????????

Boss Monsters can live a long time based upon how they age. Some people have tried analyzing the armor and architecture the monsters have in their underground which could pinpoint what time period they were first trapped underground. But even those sorts of estimates don’t let us know how old Asgore and Toriel were at that time; for all we know, these two could have been living centuries before the war against humans, too. There’s no way to tell how old they are, and I have no strong headcanon inclinations about their ages.

I don’t like to make them too old, though. Thousand-year-old Asgore feels slightly odd to me personally, even though I admit it’s a possibility.

Asriel/Chara/Frisk: 9-11

I don’t have much experience with children, but I do feel as though Asriel, Chara, and Frisk are all on the young side. They have to be pretty young to be as small as they are. They’re not full-grown. And sometimes they seem not to think things through like older individuals would. For instance, Frisk being willing to kill monsters also might suggest that the kid is too young to fully understand what is happening. All this makes me feel very strongly the kids cannot be teenagers.

But, at the same time, these three children have to be old enough to understand some pretty dark concepts. Asriel and Chara choose to sacrifice themselves for the war cause - that’s something that a six-year-old isn’t going to plan and do. Frisk seems to be the same age as Asriel, and Frisk also shows some understanding of some adult things like flirting… so, again, not six.

A compromise between Frisk’s potential inability to feel full regret at killing monsters and Frisk being able to comprehend there is a war going on might place the kid somewhere between nine and eleven. We miiiiiiiight want to inch to eleven… Chara seemed to hate humanity, a bitterness that usually comes up when you’re slightly older (as versus when you’re younger, where you might be grumpy or sad or upset). And killing yourself for monsters also seems much more like a slightly older kid than a nine year old thing to do. So… while I personally would like Frisk to be eight, I think it’s more logical to say it’s around eleven for these children.

We can also try to do height analyses, but that gets sketchy fairly quickly. Undertale height calculations have a lot of variables and widely divergent estimates.

Mettaton: Mid-20s

We have no idea how long ghosts can live. Mettaton’s personality suggests an adult - he’s rather seductive, after all - and while becoming a robot might throw a huge wrench into usual psychology patterns, he acts as though he is in the prime of his life. Mettaton and Napstablook also both seem to act young, and act as though they are about the same age as one another. So, I would say this ghost-inhabiting-a-robot is fairly young.

As far as how long Mettaton’s soul has been with the robot… it has to be several years. Mettaton has not only established a fanbase, but also has a huge corporation with many products, too. Usually I want to headcanon two years as a robot, but given as there are so many Mettaton products out there - and even an entire resort - maybe that means we have to bump the age a little up. Say, five years. That might slightly clash with my Alphys age estimate though, if you think about timeline, but it’s not impossible. You can work the numbers and make it… well… work.

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