Respect for the Craft
We're starting strong with my highest rated recommendations: the best of the best! My all-time faves! These pieces have genuine literary value and they were authored by people who very clearly know what they're doing. If you've been in the UNDERTALE fandom yourself, expect to see some familiar names.
(Note: Some of my 'reviews' on this page are rambly/unpolished/half-formed notes. Really contrasts against the high quality work I'm pointing you towards, heh.... Ironically the other pages have more collected thoughts on them. I'll come back and finish these another time!)
- "constant (not)" by Cerberussyndrome
Efficacy ★★★★★ Character ★★★★★ Prose ★★★★★ Let's kick off this list with my favourite Sans character study! This author borrows ideas from some other cool/smart fandom people, both of whom are properly credited in the opening notes. I love that about UNDERTALE and about fandom in general— our characterisation is crowd sourced. Cerberussyndrome has gone the extra mile to weave our collective meta into a charming little pre-canon narrative, delving into some of Sans's under-appreciated relationships and re-imagining the circumstances of the game from his perspective.
And her Sans voice is just... ugh... EXCELLENT! It seems a lot of people struggle to understand his mannerisms, much less untangle his messy way of thinking (he is left-handed for a reason 🙄), but this is a fandom-wide affliction by which "constant (not)" remains blessedly untouched. If you told me this was written by Toby Fox moonlighting as a Sansgirl, I would believe you. She just gets him and I am so, so grateful for that!!!
Anyways, I'm totally sold on Sans as court jester/intel-gatherer/spy/judge/scientist/friend. Uwehehe... my skeleton of many talents~─│!
- "the price of love" by whittler_of_words
Efficacy ★★★★★ Character ★★★★★ Prose ★★★★☆ This was the first UT fic to ever Do Something To Me. For a brief but wonderful time, I was friends with this author, but that's not at all why this story sticks with me. (Rant about the meta narrative & Sans-flavour despair)
Also link to other works I liked: "high score" • "Your helpful red hand" • "reduce/reuse/recycle" • "No Weights to My Ankles" • and "frisk's guide on how to kill your own ego (and yourself while you're at it)"
Also her Antebellum series was pretty popular. Based on the usual calibre of her work I'm sure it's phenomenal, but I don't think I ever read that one...?
- couch gag 📺 by L0L4
Efficacy ★★★★★ Character ★★★★★ Prose ★★★★★ To this day, I have not finished couch gag because the emotions it ignites in me are too extreme. I got about halfway through and have been mentally preparing myself to continue for... oh, I dunno... a whole year now. It's like I'm having a slow burn romance with the story itself. I love it so much, I want to read it so bad, but I just can't bring myself to do it...!
It's so beautifully written, so carefully crafted, that without noticing it I get totally carried away in Sans and Frisk's emotions, all their fumbling and yearning, the giddiness of desire. I get so overwhelmed I have to close the tab for the sake of my health. To be clear, I've cried over the mere thought of couch gag weeks and months since last reading it. That's just how powerful it is.
If I were to divide my Sansloving Journey into eras, there would be three named pre-, post-, and postponing-couch gag. So, yeah, I'm still trapped in the postponement...┌ Pray that I get out of here soon.
May 2024 update: Mark my words, I am going to read this thing in June. I can't stand to live any longer in a cough gag-less world... Er, well, any longer than another month, that is.
- Holding Pattern by Arcanista
Efficacy ★★★★★ Character ★★★★★ Prose ★★★★★ I want to read this again before I write my blurb... Hmm, what can I say in the meantime?
Something about the meta narrative and how much I love Sans and ughgh it's SOOO WELL WRITTEN like novel quality, the writing style is very Subtle and doesn't give anything away until the pivotal moment. I love the way things are foreshadowed, the dialogue is good, the narrative itself is excellent....... Like this is what fanfiction is meant to be, methinks. "Here's a canon event— now let's diverge!" It's just awesome!!!!!!! And it's so full of the spirit of UNDERTALE, it matches the surreal/unsettling tone from the horror sections, but also there's so much love and friendship and family, and there are jokes, and the lore is great, the worldbuilding is great......... SIGH!!!!!!!
- "Day 6 - Few" by ReaderRose
Efficacy ★★★★★ Character ★★★★★ Prose ★★★★★ This fic is so freaking funny... It has a hilarious framing device, too, I love the repetition. The writing is just Tehcnically Good and that's so rare in fanfiction. You can really tell this author has been grinding, levelling up her craft, and she got plenty of practice with the month-long writing challenge for which this piece was created. Honestly, she inspires me.
Others from ReaderRose: "Bonds: Frisk and Sans," "Erosion," and "Day 16 - Village." All of them are great!!! She also has some Underfell stories that focus on a toxic skelebros relationship... maybe someday I'll read those as well.
- "Metamorphose" by tuesday
Efficacy ★★★★★ Character ★★★★★ Prose ★★★★★ The author's note opens with, "you know how Undertale does an impressive job separating Frisk, the Player, and Chara? I can only apologize. (I'm not sorry.)" I hope she retracted her apology because she realised she, too, did an impressive job! To me, the three entities at play feel very distinct, and I can easily relate/attach to all of them! This fic is such a treat. It's immersive, and really feels like what it would be like to try to woo Sans within the confines of the game using time travel powers. What more could I possibly ask for? Of course I want to date that skeleton!!!
Also link to "It Goes Like This" because ughhhh i love that one....... short and sweet, deliciously sad. I love it when Sans suffers!!! But I should probably note you have to be logged in to read these...? Because the author has hidden them :x oops. Maybe she is embarrassed because they are so old— from 2015!!! But I still think they're great and very much worth reading.
- "Trying Out a Maybe" by ohjustdisarmalready
Efficacy ★★★★★ Character ★★★★★ Prose ★★★★★ From the outside, Sans seems like such a know-it-all, but that's just because he thinks so quickly and so expertly picks up on little clues. That's why it's so cool to watch him figure things out in real-time, and that's where this fic truly delivers. Just... ah... I love this one sooooo much... AGH. SANS!!!!!
Also: I have shamelessly copied the date format for my own imaginings. Something about mm/dd/yyyy rendered as 00/00/0000 just gets me super excited!
Would like to reread before I try to sperg out heh.
- "Our Friends Do Not Look Fine" by CourierNew
Efficacy ★★★★★ Character ★★★★★ Prose ★★★★★ This fic actually has nothing to do with Sans, but it wouldn't be an UNDERTALE reclist without CourierNew. Her indie game fanfiction career started strong with a smash-hit called One By One, a story I must have read but no longer remember anything about. All I remember is that CourierNew is the closest thing I have to a fanfiction god. By pure happenstance I stumbled upon her OMORI fics, years later, and when I saw her name on the cover... well, it suddenly made sense why they were so amazing.
Maybe one day I'll reread One By One and its sequel, Truant, perhaps after I've finished playing the game again? Eh, they are not Sans-centric and therefore rather low on the pecking order. But I still really, truly, genuinely admire the work of CourierNew and I want everyone to know about her!!!
- "Frisk Learns Some New Words" by Rakkogaki
Efficacy ★★★★★ Character ★★★★★ Prose ★★★★★ This is one of the most hilarious Undertale fanfictions I have EVER read! Rakkogaki writes in her ending notes that she had "no idea whether or not [her ideas] would be funny," and I'm so pleased to report that she totally delivered. She's an expert not only in comedic timing but in literary pacing as well, so that the story slowly and hilariously unfolds— just as any Sans-centric piece should. Her characterisation of him is phenonemal, by the way. Everything that he says and does in this fic is totally believable, and honestly it made me fall for him even harder than before... I didn't even realise that was possible!
Big big thanks to Rakkogaki for giving me the laughs I needed. I'm looking forward to reading the multi-chapter Eat Up, Punks! next. The tags look really promising, and even then I know that they won't give anything away. Nothing could have prepared me for what was actually meant by the unassuming "piano" tag on this delightful oneshot. Literally nothing.
- "easy as a slap" by mrmime
Efficacy ★★★★★ Character ★★★★★ Prose ★★★★★ The Flowey & Sans tag on AO3 is a gold mine for weird stories, usually highly canon divergent ones. This time, mrmime has treated us to a glorious post-canon oneshot that is... still canon divergent, actually? But so in-character that I scarcely realised! Like, I'm 100% certain this is exactly how it'd go if Sans had to babysit for a very grumpy Asriel. He's so soft in this story, too... trustworthy and calm. It really melts my heart. There's a line towards the end that reads, "Sans doesn't take the bait, because he never does," and I just sighed and went yeah... His easygoing personality is so dreamy!
Anyways, I really appreciate mrmime's storytelling skills. The pacing, the prose, the dialogue— everything is excellent. It's witty, meditative, and heartbreaking all at once, and the potency of Asriel's narration will stick with me for a long time, I'm sure. And not just that— I'm fed up! It's not fair! I want Sans to babysit me, too!
- "Shortcut and Paste" by UndertaleThingem
Efficacy ★★★★★ Character ★★★★★ Prose ★★★★★ Here's another Sans-centric genfic comedy that I want to hold forever and ever in my heart. As the author points out in her ending notes, multi-Sans stories are usually about AU versions interacting with each other and, while those can be lots of fun for me, it's the OG Sans who really owns my heart! So a story that's got two or three or five of him in it can only be two or three or five times as much fun~┐!
I just love Sans shenanigans so much... and UndertaleThingem's overall depiction of him is impeccable. She understands the way he thinks, what he wants, his hopes and his fears... All the best fanfictions feel like they could, conceivably, be added to the canon, and I can say without a doubt that this piece would fit perfectly into Sans's backstory.
I've yet to read this author's other works, but I'm very much looking forward to "Sans and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day", as well as "One for the Money, Two for the Road" and "Snow Problem". Her more Papyrus-centric stories seem promising, too.
