| “ | But nobody came. | „ |
| ~ Narration after starting a genocide run |
| “ | You felt your sins crawling on your back | „ |
| ~ One of the many flavor texts during Sans's battle |
Frisk is the main protagonist of the 2015 indie RPG Undertale.
They are the eighth human to fall into the Underground, a realm inhabited by monsters, and the game follows their attempt to return to the surface world.
Along the way, the player may kill or spare every monster they counter or kill and spare only a select few. While they are a hero in the Pacifist route, they are On & Off in the Neutral Route and an outright villain in the Genocide Route.
Their Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Them Heinous?[]
In General[]
- While they are a silent protagonist, they have shown multiple times throughout the game to have a form of personality due to the various reactions they receive from other characters. One of these examples include Sans noticing in the Pacifist Route how they always run away from a fight with a smile on their face while refusing to hurt anyone, how they take one step to stop Photoshop Flowey without player interference during the Neutral Route, them choosing to hug Asriel out of their own will and the many times they attempt to attack other characters by approaching them without player's input during the Genocide Route. In general, all of the ACT decisions and flavor texts provided in the game are Frisk's own thoughts and ideas with the player simply having the ability to choose between them to influence their way of ACTing, this being what principally changes Frisk's behavior during the game's different routes:
- In True Pacifist, they are a kind-hearted and nice kid who lightens up dire situations, is willing to put themselves at risk for their friends, forgive those who try to hurt them and refuse to do the same to them and have no problem in reaching out to those who need it and end conflicts peacefully.
- In Neutral, they are driven by their own instincts and mostly do heroic or villainous deeds depending in their situation, sometimes they can come across as kinda cruel since one of the flavor texts the player get when interacting with the Dog Food after killing the Royal Guards is "you just remembered something funny".
- In Genocide, they are someone cruel and much colder, impatient and violent towards anyone, proved by the multiple times they intimidate others by approaching them or how Sans describes the looks in their faces and can tell how much they have died, furthermore he will call them a freak if they reload after killing him.
- There are also a few moments where Frisk can outright refuse some of the players actions, demonstrated when attempting to talk to Toriel will give the flavor texts "Ironically, talking does not seem like the solution to this situation." in Neutral and Pacifist, or "Not worth talking to" in Genocide, in Undyne's fight during her date giving her a real attack will only deal 1 damage like the "Fake Attack" option and attempting to heckle at Snowdrake's mom twice will only give the flavor text "You call this a performance?"
- To further prove this, the True Pacifist ending has the narrator and all the characters recognize Frisk by their own name instead of the name we give them. with even Flowey telling Chara to leave Frisk live their life and not reset, making it clear that they are their own person with their own agenda instead of a vessel the player can project themselves into as many people seem to think.
- While they are a child, they are shown to have a moral agency since they clearly know from right and wrong as in all routes they are taught by Toriel and other monsters such as Papyrus how to be a good person and peacefully end conflict with a monster, and Sans's judgements in Neutral and True Pacifist routes make it clear they know what they're doing.
- While one could argue they are being controlled by the SOUL or Chara, there's no in-game evidence that suggests this, not to mention that Chara's presence is really weak during the whole run and it's limited to work as a counter for our kill count, their presence only gets strong enough to control Frisk near the end where the narrations become in first-person or have red text. Keep in mind that Frisk uses third-person pronouns for their actions and Chara uses first-person pronouns, and even though Chara does nearly take over towards the end of the route, the "you" still exists at this point in the game as seen in the Sans's fight.
- Even assuming Chara is somehow controlling them during the whole run if we take as proof the reflection dialogue in The Ruins saying "It's me, Chara" or the encounters in Waterfall onwards being marked by a smiley face above the protagonist's head as opposed to an exclamation point. It ends up making no sense as to why they can abort Genocide at any given point in the game, except towards the end.
- It's also highly debatable if the player even exists in Undertale in the first place, as while they are somewhat implied to be part of the game, none of the characters directly address them as part of the story and everything that happens in the game with the player's input can have an in-universe explanation, and with all things considered this ultimately falls into alternate character interpretation, which is not taken in consideration in moral scaling.
- While the Legends of Localization book seems to imply Frisk is being controlled by 2 or 3 other entities, that being Chara and the SOUL, it is not actually explicitly stated they are controlling them, in fact it only says they are "vying" for control, not directly controlling them, which leaves things too ambiguous and left for interpretation to be taken as a fact. Another important thing to consider is that the book wasn't written by Toby himself but Clyde Mandelin, the main translator for the Japanese localization, so the canonicity of the book is highly questionable.
- Overall there's far more evidence in the game that suggests Frisk is doing things on their own will as opposed to being controlled by an external entity like Chara or the SOUL.
- Furthermore, this information was removed in future reprints of the book, which makes even more questionable all this information.
- In the Neutral and Genocide Route, stand out as the most heinous character in the game as no one ever comes close to the amount of successful kills they have, with the only real competitors being Chara, who need of Frisk's presence to even be heinous in the first place.
Neutral Route (all determinant)[]
- They destroy the dummy, which shocks Toriel a bit. While the dummy isn’t truly alive, this is still jerkish.
- They kill various species throughout the Ruins, Snowdin, Waterfall and Hotland.
- Though to be fair, most of these are in self-defense and is something even Sans recognizes. Nevertheless the monsters also can lose all intentions to fight if they are attacked enough and some of them don't even realize their attacks are dangerous to Frisk (with a small few even outright not attacking them directly as seen with Whimsun) making the self-defense argument weak.
- They can take a piece of the Snowman's body and eat it in front of him despite him wanting them to take it to the surface. Another thing they can do is purposely drop the piece twice, which will make the Snowman realize his wish of wanting see the real world is just a fantasy and monsterkind is doomed to be trapped underground forever.
- They kill Toriel when trying to prove that they are strong enough to leave the Ruins.
- They kill Papyrus after their battle, and it is not out of self-defense as Papyrus is already sparing them.
- They leave Monster Kid to fall off a bridge, in the process making Undyne hurt herself while jumping to save them.
- They can betray kill many monsters such as Toriel, Papyrus, the Royal Guards and Muffet even though they are sparing them.
- This can come off as incredibly cruel considering that they can be killed in their most vulnerable moment when they're opening up to Frisk about their insecurities.
- Sans’ judgements:
- He will say they’re a gross person at LV1 if they kill somebody just to see what he’d say about it.
- At LV2, he says that they’d not get to it by accident as they killed someone on purpose.
- At over LV3, he says they killed some people on purpose, and they should not do that.
- At over LV9, he says that probably he already tried to steer them in the right direction and that he can’t do much to change the mind of someone like them.
- At over LV14, he will that they’re a pretty bad person, looking around for victims to kill them and take their money.
- If they kill Papyrus, he asks if they should RESET responsibly, instead of using it to do immoral acts.
- If they agree with Sans, he asks why they killed his brother.
- They disagree with Sans, who decides not to judge them, but calls them a “dirty brother killer.”
- Even if they abort a Genocide Route in Hotland, they will still be forced to kill Mettaton NEO for their own decisions.
- At the end, their actions lead to the underground with a bad feeling over the monsters, as if everyone were about to die trapped there.
- If Frisk kills Mettaton and/or Undyne, Alphys will disappear thanks to this, with heavy implications she commits suicide.
- Due to their actions in some of the Neutral endings, they are indirectly responsible for either Undyne usurping and exiling Toriel (or simply becoming ruler of the Underground if Frisk kills Toriel), becoming hellbent on eradicating humanity once Monsterkind leaves the barrier or Mettaton becoming a dictator of the Undergound who essentially brainwashes everyone and is implied to kill anyone who goes against him. The Annoying Dog can also become king.
- Alternatively, if they befriend Undyne but kill anyone and/or destroy Mettaton afterward, she ends up hateful of them and loses her job due to Toriel’s policy of disbanding the Royal Guard and/or Alphys disappearing.
Genocide Route[]
- They kill twenty monsters in the Ruins, including the Dummy, and even Napstablook (Who cannot be killed since they’re already a ghost) flees terrified.
- They kill Toriel with a violent slash, with her realizing that the people she truly protecting were really the monsters and not them.
- In Snowdin, they kille sixteen monsters.
- One of them include Snowdrake, who's said to be only a teenager and Dogamy & Doggaressa, who both feel devastated if one of the 2 die, with Dogamy being heartbroken and losing all hope and Doggaressa being incredibly angry.
- They can also choose to take the pieces of the living Snowman while he watches, going to the point when he begs them to stop, only to end up as a "useless pile of snow" by the flavor text’s own words. What's worse is that the Snowman isn’t a real threat to Frisk and only wants to see the surface, he also doesn’t even have any way of defend himself, which means Frisk kills him for no real reason apart from healing ITEMs.
- Their actions lead to everyone evacuating and running away in fear, leaving Snowdin like a ghost town.
- Upon finding out the Snowdin Shopkeeper is absent from her store, they can steal all of her wares and 758G.
- They kill Papyrus, despite the fact that he is giving them a chance at redemption.
- In Waterfall, they kill eighteen monsters.
- Attempts to kill Monster Kid when confronted by them, only to be stopped by Undyne who takes the hit instead.
- Undyne says that Frisk is not only a threat to monsters, but humanity as well, which would mean Frisk is also willing to kill their own kind.
- Kills Undyne the Undying, who is trying to stop them in trying to destroy humans and monsters, ending with her horrifically dying while slowly melting until she turns into dust.
- What makes this worse is that Alphys is watching the fight, meaning she has to see her best friend/crush die.
- They kill the Royal Guards who are trying to avenge Undyne.
- Upon arriving to Hotland and meeting Mettaton, their first thought is to fight him, which in return makes Mettaton flee.
- Upon finding Bratty and Catty are absent from their store, they can steal all of their wares and 5G.
- They can threaten the shopkeepers Gerson and Burgerpants, and only spares them because of the fact that shopkeepers cannot be fought.
- After killing the forty remaining citizens of Hotland, they fight against Mettaton NEO, one-shotting him.
- They continuously try to kill Sans despite being aware that if they keep going in their Genocide they can possibly endanger the whole underground, and possibly even the universe, and after a while they successfully kill him he's tired.
- Although Flowey helps them finish Asgore, they kill him unmercifully until he dies. (although he arguably deserves it for his actions).
- Optionally, when Chara offers them the choice, they can choose to erase the world with the Erase button which could wipe out the rest of the monster race and likely humanity.
- If the player does a second Genocide route and further, they even manage to horrify Chara who is disgusted by the thought the player thinks they have no consequences, being against putting the world into a state of endless destruction. Even if they were in partial control of Frisk and it's mainly because they want to move to another world to claim more victims, Chara will explicitly say you have a "perverted sentimentality".
True Pacifist Route[]
- Can act like a jerk and bully to monsters, and can still destroy the Dummy.
- If Frisk performs a Genocide route before doing a Pacifist route, this allows Chara to come back to life in Frisk's body and kill all the monsters and likely humans too.
What Makes Them Inconsistent?[]
- Their actions are based entirely on the player's choices, as they can choose to not commit genocide and can even complete the game without killing a single monster, making them too determinant and inconsistent as a character since they can be anything from Pure Evil to Pure Good.
- They are On & Off, having the option to make friends in the underground and give monsterkind hope to make the Underground much better than what it was or save all the monsters from Flowey and have them make peace with the humans.
- They can also be friendly and affable to monsters through the ACT option.
- Even in the Genocide Route, they can still choose not to erase the world and make SOULs deal with Chara to bring the world back, which could suggest an attempt to redeem themselves.
- In Neutral Routes, not all their kills were out of malice: as some were out of self-defense (Undyne, Mettaton EX & Flowey); Toriel was asking them to prove themselves to be strong enough to survive the underground, so killing her in this case is usually accidental as a result of dealing more damage than intended; and Asgore asked them to kill him to take his SOUL to leave the underground.
- They can have many comical moments or mischievous, non-malicious moments throughout the game, which include:
- Them doing nothing to the training Dummy until it gets bored and flees, leaving Toriel confused.
- Them thinking themself as the scum of the earth by taking more than one monster candy.
- Them hiding behind a conveniently shaped lamp before Papyrus notices them.
- The whole date with Papyrus and Undyne.
- Them feeling determined for whatever reasons in the SAVE points messages.
- Having Sans put an immense amount of Hotdogs over their head.
- Purposefully messing with the monsters, whether it be flirting in battle, ringing the bell at Doggo's sentry post to summon him, typing any kind of goofy stuff in their essay during Mettaton's fight or repeatedly phone calling their friends while being right infront of them.
- While these moments are mostly absent in the Genocide Run and Frisk is treated is a proper threat, they are still present, as in Genocide the first encounter with Papyrus is still played for laughs, as Frisk stays completely still when Papyrus finds them and he quickly brushes it off, and the next scene with him has Papyrus not recognize Frisk as a human and instead looking at the rock behind them, and can be mocked by Sans if they die multiple times in his fight. Regardless Frisk is still taken as a real threat to the entire universe by the own narrative and characters, making this a really minor prevention in this route.
- They appear to have standards, as they neither laugh nor heckle at Snowdrake's mother in the True Lab, even though they have the option to do so.
- They can also deny the option to erase the world at the end of the genocidal route, which suggests standards. However, this is rather hypocritical since they already knew beforehand they were endangering their timeline thanks to Sans.
- They're also able to redeem themselves at almost any point in the game during the Genocide Route, as sparing bosses or specific encounters can abort the route entirely and they're given a chance at redemption by Papyrus, even if they continue advancing with their Genocide to the point of no return, Sans gives them one last chance to give up and reset the timeline, which depending on the player's choices, can end with Frisk resetting the timeline and bringing back everyone they killed.
- It is implied that they have a sad expression when Flowey, in the subsequent neutral routes, thinking they want to be friends with him, cruelly rejects this and says that there is only one person he could care about, but still wouldn't really care with them, which could indicate that they felt sorry for him or sad for what he said (which angers Flowey).
Trivia[]
- Frisk first started as an IH but was initially rejected due to it being believed they had no personality and were being controlled against their will by The SOUL or Chara and thus failed to them. However after it was pointed out they did show characterization multiple times throughout the game without player interference and there was no evidence they were being controlled against their will by The SOUL or Chara they got reproposed and approved as Inconsistently Heinous.
- Frisk is alongside Flowey/Asriel Dreemurr the only Undertale characters who are both Inconsistently Heinous and Inconsistently Admirable.
External Links[]
- Frisk on the Villains Wiki
- Frisk on the Heroes Wiki
- Frisk on the Inconsistently Admirable Wiki
- Frisk on the Moral Ranking Wiki
- Frisk on the Undertale Wiki
[]
 / Inconsistently Heinous
| ||
|
Canon Fanon | ||