Mettaton

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Character
Name: Mettaton
Occupation: TV personality
Relationships: Alphys (friend, "creator"), Napstablook (cousin), Mad Dummy (cousin), Burgerpants (employee), Bratty & Catty (fangirls)
Fandom: Undertale, Deltarune
Other:
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Mettaton is a major character from Undertale. He also has a minor appearance in Deltarune.

Canon Overview

In Undertale

Mettaton is the final boss of the Hotland area. He challenges Frisk multiple times, having them appear as a guest on his various TV shows, under the guise of being "out of control" so that Alphys will be able to grow close enough to Frisk to appeal to them to stay in the Underground. However, his relationship with Alphys is strained due to her procrastinating on finishing the humanoid upgrade to his body that he desires, and he eventually goes off-script and tries to kill Frisk for real. He states that he wants to keep Frisk's soul for himself to keep humanity safe from Asgore Dreemurr, and wishes to cross the Barrier to become a star in the human world. Toby Fox has stated that his boss battle has elements inspired by Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.

If spared, he reconsiders his plan after his cousin Napstablook calls in to his show, and realizes that the monsters still need him. He runs out of batteries and can no longer be interacted with until the True Pacifist ending, but can be found in Alphys' lab on her work desk nonetheless.

In Neutral endings where both Toriel and Undyne are dead, Mettaton becomes the new leader of the Underground, forcefully attempting to cheer up the people by taking over the entertainment industry. He is portrayed as a corrupt ruler who makes anyone who speaks against him disappear.

In a Genocide/No Mercy run, Mettaton blocks the way into the castle in a unique form, but cannot attack and is dispatched in one hit.

Mettaton's past as a ghost can be learned about if the player gets the key to his old house and reads his diaries.

In Deltarune

Deltarune's version of Mettaton appears as one of the denizens of Hometown. Due to this world's Alphys being a teacher instead of a scientist, he does not have his robot body, and instead lives with Napstablook. He is a shut-in and refuses to either leave the house or to let Kris in if the player tries to say hello to him.

If talked to in town during chapters 1 and 2, Mettaton will request that Kris bring him something entertaining during chapter 3, as the long-lasting Internet outage has left him without anything to do.

Additionally, the secret bonus boss form of Spamton is implied to have originally been Mettaton's dream of an ideal body through dialogue with Swatch. This may also explain why the Dummy leitmotif and Power of NEO are both quoted in the battle's BGM.

Fandom

Most fanart of Mettaton portrays him in his humanoid body instead of his initial form.

Mettaton is often perceived by fans to be a transgender character based on Undyne referring to his old identity with they/them pronouns, and the otherkin community also treats him as an otherkin character.

He is the favorite character of BNF and Hatoful Boyfriend creator Moa Hato.

Fan Theories

  • Mettaton NEO: There are several fan theories as to why Mettaton NEO is killed in one single hit. One is that Mettaton NEO as a killer robot is programmed to identify and eliminate humans, but his identification system fails to classify the protagonist as human, similar to how characters like Sans also express doubt about the protagonist's humanity. As a result, Mettaton NEO's human-specific combat abilities never activate. Another theory says that Mettaton NEO's design might be more theatrical than practical. As a celebrity robot, he's accustomed to performing for an audience, and his battles may be more about showmanship than substance. So the NEO form could be just a costume made to intimidate the opponent. Another theory says he gives almost the same EXP as Sans, suggests that he's built to eliminate opponents in a single highly devastating attack. However, this approach fails because the player is always granted the first turn in battles, maing NEO vulnerable and ineffective.

Common Pairings

  • Mettaton/Papyrus (Papyton)
  • Mettaton/Napstablook
  • Mettaton/Burgerpants (Mettapants)

Wank

Some fans take issue with the "Undertale: The Musical" event where Mettaton wears a dress and sings a ballad in parody of the Final Fantasy VI opera scene, based on the suspicion that the main "joke" of this event is supposed to be the fact that Mettaton is wearing a dress and not the parody elements and accusing the text of transmisogyny. Fans who disagree often point to the NPC known as "Dress Lion", who appears in this area after that event and says that seeing Mettaton wear a dress has emboldened them to try wearing one too. (In the True Pacifist epilogue, this character is seen wearing Mettaton's dress, which he has given to them.)

Mettaton is also the subject of ship wank, with anti-shippers claiming that Mettaton should not be shipped with Papyrus because Papyrus is "too innocent" to be shipped, and that Mettaton should not be shipped with Burgerpants because it "promotes abuse" due to Burgerpants' complaints about his boss. Wank about Mettaton/Burgerpants also claims that the pairing adheres to homophobic stereotypes of gay men using their positions of authority to sexually harass employees.

Undertail fanwork portraying Mettaton sexually sometimes attracts truscum wank if he is portrayed as having a vagina or interchangeable genital parts/if in human AUs he is portrayed as a pre-op or non-op trans man, on the basis that this is fetishization. Fans who make these kinds of complaints unfortunately tend to ignore when actual trans creators produce this kind of work. In worst case scenarios, this can turn into gatekeeping harassment targeting those creators for being trans "wrong" and/or accusing them of lying about their identities.

Fanworks

Fanfic

Fanart

Fan Videos

Meta

Archives and Fannish Links

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