Character Analysis: Undyne

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Undyne

Character Analysis

"You're gonna have to try a little better than THAT."

Background

Debut: 2014 (Undertale)
Age: 19 to 28
Sex: Female
Height: Approx. 5’8” | 173 cm
Weight: Approx. 141 lbs | 64 kg
Occupation(s): Lt. Col. of the Royal Guard, Queen,
Backstory: 

   Long ago, two races ruled over the Earth: humans and monsters. Human souls are much stronger than monster souls and can persist after death--something only a few monsters can do for long. Monsters made up for this by having the ability to absorb human souls to increase their power.

Humans quickly grew to fear monsterkind, eventually starting a war that ended with the monsters sealed under Mt. Ebbot with a magical barrier. Monster souls could not pass, while human souls could. 

    Years later, a human child fell into the Underground, rescued by King Asgore's son. Asriel and his family adopted the child, and they lived together for many years. Chara eventually died, prompting Asriel to absorb their soul, bypass the barrier, and return them to a field of golden flowers by their village (as was their last wish). But the humans assumed Asriel had killed Chara and attacked him. 

    Asriel trudged back to the entrance of the Underground, soon dying from his injuries. Angered, a grieving Asgore took this as a call to war and assembled a royal guard to capture humans in the Underground to cross the barrier and enact his revenge. 

    As the years went on, Asgore managed to collect six human souls before getting word that a final seventh had arrived. It was then that the modern Royal Guard would scour the Underground for this soul. The head of this Royal Guard was Undyne. Undyne grew up in the Waterfall region a hot-headed child, idolizing the town hero, Gerson. She would follow him everywhere, though she tended to get in trouble doing so.

    One day, Undyne happened upon Asgore and challenged him to prove she was the strongest. However, she could not beat him, even though Asgore refused to fight back. Humiliated, Undyne admitted defeat, and Asgore offered to train her. The two would grow close from then on, peaking when she finally managed to knock him over. After a while, Undyne became the new head of the Royal Guard.

Equipment

• Spears: Undyne’s iconic go-to weapons are spears. They typically are as long as her own body and are presumably made out of magic or some kind of light, though they do have mass.
• Sword: Although she hasn’t been shown using it, Undyne has a claymore in her house.
• Armor: Undyne is seen throughout a chunk of the game covered in durable armor.
• The armor is so tough, it can be in Hotland for long periods of time and only get uncomfortable. Hotland is so hot a cup of water can suddenly vaporize (along with the cup itself.)

Powers & Abilities

• Spear Manipulation: Undyne’s most iconic ability is the ability to create and control blue spears, typically her own size.
• Undyne can summon multiple spears at a time
• She can make them airborne, or wield them by hand
• They can spike out of the ground, though there is a warning spot
• She can summon white spears as well, though they act more like her regular ones.
• Spears of varying sizes are also controlled by Undyne.
• Standard mini-spears are blue and presumably weaker, but are faster and more numerous.
• Yellow mini-spears flip to the opposite side of the opponent when struck, acting as a sneak attack.
• Soul Manipulation: As a monster, Undyne has the ability to directly interact with human souls. Monsters are capable of absorbing human souls for power, and can even directly attack them.
• Souls in Undertale can heal from consuming food, and will increase in durability if physical armor is equipped. Thus, it’s more than likely the durability of a soul is tied to the physicality of its user.
• A monster’s soul is different than a humans in that the body of it is moreso a possession of
• Some monsters have the ability to alter the very behaviour of another soul by changing its color. Undyne can use an ability called “Shield Mode,” which disables the movement of the soul.
• Unlike most monsters, this effect is activated by physical contact with the target’s soul.
• Shield Mode can be deactivated the same way.
• In this mode, the affected soul equips a spear for defense. Though the soul is sessile, it can rotate in place to block incoming attacks with said spear.
• Yellow mini-spears will still flip upon contact with the spear, though can be blocked once they do.
• Undyne the Undying: In Undertale’s “Genocide Run,” Undyne upon death transforms into Undyne the Undying, a much more powerful version of herself.
• To access this form, special conditions must be met:
• Undyne must first be killed
• She and thousands of others must already share the same goal of striking her foe down, giving a “burning feeling” in her soul (which is implied to be determination, a power that normally only humans have)
• As to be expected, this form greatly boosts her stats by roughly twice as much.
• Her spears come out in greater frequency and are much faster.
• A brand new spear ring attack occurs in the fight (though it’s possible she could do this already, and this form simply improves it through speed and frequency).

Feats

Strength:

• Knocked down Asgore as a kid
• It’s worth noting Asgore is a big guy, even unarmored.
• Can bench press the weight of seven children
• Easily played pillow fight with a whole couch
• Lifted Toriel, Asgore, Alphys, Papyrus and Sans together at the same time
• Suplexed a boulder, just because she could
• Somehow shut an envelope so tightly it would need a chainsaw to open

Attack Potency:

• Shook her house just by jumping
• Hurled a spear through a table out of reflex

Speed:

• Intercepted a hit before Monster Kid could react
• Undyne was nowhere to be seen before or after the encounter
• Ran from her house to Papyrus's in a very short amount of time
• The distance between Waterfall and Snowdin is pretty long

Durability:

• Jumped down a chasm and survived
• Had a full conversation and monologue while bisected, shoulder-to-hip
• Took an oven overheating and causing an explosion that set her whole house aflame
• MTT-Brand ovens are stated to reach 9,000 degrees, though it's unknown if that value is in Celsius, Fahrenheit, or Kelvin

Scaling:

• Undyne can manhandle Frisk, and physically should be comparable regarding their fight with Asgore.
• Frisk can push boulders roughly their own size, and their soul is fast enough to dodge a dog's bark
• Papyrus and Undyne have frequently sparred against each other, with the former being considered "pretty freaking tough."
• Papyrus can tank an electric shock meant to incapacitate a person
• In an alternate ending, Undyne defeated Toriel.
• Papyrus even remarked that even she couldn't defeat her.
• Toriel can send Asgore flying with a casual fireball

Weaknesses

• Outside of combat skill, Undyne isn't "street smart," per se. She can be tricked easily, and tends to go more by instinct than logic.
• She can be a tad overemotional, breaking down if she's put into a corner.
• Monsters cannot maintain their soul after death, and since their bodies are physical projections of their souls, they'll turn to dust. Boss monsters are the exception to this, though they still will break after a while if left alone.
• If monsters have determination in their souls (via injection or having the power of countless other souls lent to them), they may come back fully after death. However the process is fickle, and if a monster has even a slight amount of determination less than normal, they'll begin to melt and slowly die.

Summary

Pros:

• Potent soul manipulation could end a lot of fights early
• Above-average lifting strength for characters in her tier
• Has superb battlefield control via her stealth, speed and spears
• Training with the likes of Asgore grants Undyne good experience
• Shield Mode can help decrease or even close potential speed gaps
• Yellow spears and ground arrows allow her to easily catch opponents off-guard
• Most of Undyne's feats are casual, implying she could be higher than we've seen
• Resistant to extreme heat, granting an advantage against most fire users
• Possibly tied for the strongest character in her verse, (barring god tiers like Asriel and Chara)
• Has a gamer girl GF

Cons:

• Soul stats are tied to the host, so she must be close in stats for her hax to be effective
• Average to below-average attack potency for characters in her tier
• Even Undyne's best scaling makes her fairly slow compared to others like her
• Relies on instinct and opportunity more than strategy and exploitation
• Shield Mode can be countered by those resistant to soul hax
• Even comparable reflexes to Undyne allow others to get past Shield Mode unphased
• Undyne the Undying is far too conditional to be used when starting off in base form
• Can't reasonably defend against most types of soul manipulation given her physiology
• Has no gamer girl GF in Deltarune