See I like Sans but not in the funny meme sexyman way I like him in the way that he promised Toriel to protect a child that was going to be served as a sacrifice from the start because he couldn’t find himself to say no to her genuine laughter and sense of humor at every dumb joke they told each other, how he cracked jokes and pranks to make this child feel comfortable while warning them to be careful and reminding them that people loved them and having a gentle heart doesn’t make you weak like to this day I still think about “Take care of yourself, kid. Cause someone out there really loves you.” and “You didn’t gain LOVE, but you gained love.” Sans is our friend actually
Sans Undertale is my friend and I love him
When you consider that he hates promises (this is by his own admission), Sans’ promise to Toriel becomes a cardinal point of his arc in the pacifist run. For all the “good food” and “bad laughs”, Sans is ultimately a man who’s given up. He feels powerless, but it’s also heavily implied that it was through his friendship with Toriel that he recently started to get better. Making that kind of promise was one of the first signs that maybe, just maybe, he still had hope.
There’s more. In the ending phonecall for the Flawed Pacifist ending (where you didn’t kill anyone but all your friends are still trapped underground, right before Flowey tells you to load your SAVE file and get a true happy ending), he tries to tell you something before being interrupted by Papyrus. He never finishes the thought aloud, but if you look for it you can find it there, hiding in the code:
Sans Undertale is your friend. And I’ll be damned if he doesn’t love you, too.
