Monster Kid

^[1]

You aren't gonna tell my parents about this, are you?

Monster Kid as Undyne drags them away

Monster Kid is a young monster and major character in Waterfall who stops at nothing to see their idol, Undyne, in action.

Profile

Appearance

Yo! You're a Human too, right?
I can tell 'cause you're wearing a striped shirt.

Talking to Monster Kid in Snowdin

Monster Kid is a yellow monster with no arms, a tail, and spikes on the back of their head. Having no arms and frequently running everywhere, they trip and fall often. They have bags under their eyes. One of the bags are bigger than the other. They wear a shirt with two towers and a plane.

Personality

Monster Kid looks up to Undyne as a role model. They are an innocent monster who assumes an energetic attitude that pervades most of their actions. They seem to be a bit naive, as well as a bit clumsy, as they trip frequently. They also use words like "Yo," "cool" and "awesome" frequently, usually considered childlike ways of interaction.

Despite the protagonist notably frightening Monster Kid during the Genocide Route (once they discover the protagonist's intentions), they stand up to the protagonist with an intense expression, ready to protect the Underground, trying to act like Undyne. Choosing to spare them aborts the Genocide Route, and Monster Kid's opinion of the protagonist returns to a more favorable state, showing a rather forgiving nature.

Main Story

Neutral Route

Monster Kid first meets the protagonist in Snowdin. They note how both of them are wearing striped shirts, so they both must be children. However, they do not seem to notice that the protagonist is a human child.

They later sneak out of Snowdin to explore Waterfall, looking for Undyne. They follow the protagonist, not knowing that the latter is a human whom Undyne is searching for, and they feel a little jealous of the attention that the protagonist receives from her.

While walking across a bridge, Monster Kid finds out that the protagonist is a human and reluctantly considers the protagonist an enemy. They try to say something mean to the human, in an attempt to become enemies, but feel bad for it and start to leave.

Just as Monster Kid leaves, they trip over the edge of the bridge and hang from it (presumably with their teeth) as Undyne approaches. The protagonist must make a choice:

• Help them climb back up: Monster Kid defends the protagonist from Undyne, who backs off. They decide to remain friends with the protagonist and leave for home.
• Let them fall: Undyne dives down after Monster Kid to save them. She is badly hurt but refuses to rest. They then tell Undyne that she was right about the human, who just stood there waiting for them to fall. This response makes Monster Kid hate the protagonist.
• Run to Undyne: Undyne saves Monster Kid and is badly hurt. They tell Undyne that she was right about the human, who was too eager to fight her to bother saving them. This response also makes Monster Kid hate the protagonist.
• Run away from Undyne: Undyne helps Monster Kid up, who tells her that the protagonist was just going to get help from others.

True Pacifist Route

Monster Kid is seen cheering the protagonist on to victory in the bottom-right corner of the battle screen as they face off against Flowey. In the epilogue, they can be found in Snowdin. If saved earlier, they say they do not think Undyne is that great anymore, and that they found themself a new idol, implied to be Papyrus.^[2] If not saved by the protagonist, however, they are still mad at them for not saving them.^[3] They are also seen during the credits, attending Toriel's school.

Genocide Route

Despite being warned by Undyne that the protagonist has hurt a lot of people, Monster Kid approaches the protagonist in disbelief. Frisk turns away, and as Monster Kid questions the protagonist about not answering them, the protagonist silently approaches them with a "weird expression," causing them to step back.

Monster Kid begins to panic and wonders what they should do, and then stands up to the protagonist out of desperation, trying to act like Undyne, stating nervously that if the protagonist wants to continue to hurt others, the protagonist would have to go through them.

The protagonist then proactively engages battle with them, with the narration simply declaring "In my way." A slowed-down version of Anticipation plays during the battle. If the game is restarted after this cutscene, or when the protagonist dies, the scene is abbreviated: after Monster Kid approaches the protagonist, they trick Monster Kid into turning the other way, then engage the battle.

• If the protagonist attacks Monster Kid, Undyne takes the fatal blow in their place. The kid escapes while harboring a shocked expression, and the protagonist fights Undyne the dying. Monster Kid is not seen again for the rest of the game; it is assumed they evacuated with the others. Although in an interview, Toby Fox said that Monster Kid died when tripping off the bridge, just like in the Neutral Route.
• If the protagonist spares Monster Kid, they exclaim the protagonist wasn't particularly bad. This action aborts the Genocide Route, and the protagonist fights Undyne later in Waterfall normally.

Quotes

Pre-Battle

Genocide

• Yo!
• Yo.
• Undyne told me to stay away from you.
• She said you... You hurt a lot of people.
• ...
• But, yo, that's not true, right!?
• ...
• ... yo... Why won't you answer me?
• A... a... and what's with that weird expression...?
• Oh... Oh man...
• (Man, my h-heart's pounding right out of my chest...)
• (... what would Undyne do?)
• (...)
• Yo...
• Y-you'd b-better st-stop r-right where you are...
• Cause if you w-wanna hurt anyone else... you're...
• You're gonna have to get through me, first.
• A... and... and...
• [Post-introduction, subsequent resets]
  • Yo!
  • Yo, dude... I... I heard some things, and...
  • What? Look over here? What for

Battle

Genocide

• ... [Neutral]
• [Attack]
  • Undyne... You're... You're hurt...
  • [Undyne] Hurt? It's nothing.
  • [Undyne] Next time, listen when I tell you to leave, okay?
  • Undyne... I...
  • [Undyne] I'll take care of this!
  • [Undyne] Get out of here!

Post-Battle

Genocide (Aborted)

• S-see? I knew y-you weren't so bad!
• I've gotta go tell Undyne she was wrong about you!

Flavor Text

• Looks like free EXP. [Check]
• In my way. [Encounter]
• Monster Kid quivers anxiously. [Neutral]

Gallery

Monster Kid as seen behind Undyne the dying on her tarot card.

Artwork from Undertale's 5th anniversary.

Monster Kid's tarot card as Major Arcana XIX, "Sun".

Monster Kid behind Sans and Frisk in the Story of Undertale.

Trivia

• Monster Kid was designed by Magnolia Porter, creator of "Monster Pulse." She also designed Snowdrake, Ice Cap, Jerry, and helped design Gyftrot.
  • The Pokemon Scraggy might be the inspiration for Monster Kid's design; both are small, yellow, bipedal lizard-like creatures with protruding teeth. While Scraggy may have arms, it has to use them perpetually to hold up its pelt, which is a lot like not having arms at all, just like Monster Kid.
• Monster Kid's assumption that the protagonist is a kid because of their striped shirt may be a reference to the Mother series, where in the main protagonists of each game are Nero who wear striped shirts.
• Monster Kid can be seen behind Undyne the Dying's head in the "The Dying" tarot card.
• In the Japanese translation, Monster Kid uses "ore" for themself, which is usually only used by males when speaking casually to friends.^[1]
  • Monster Kid was referred to with "he/him" pronouns in initial printings of the Undertale Art Book.^[4] Later printings removed these references.
  • Legends of Localization Book 3: UNDERTALE, an officially licensed book on the Undertale Japanese translation written in consultation with Toby Fox, confirms that Monster Kid has no canon gender.^[5]
• Monster Kid's line after the protagonist allows them to fall from the ledge mentioning he was "almost a goner", may be a reference to Gooner Kid.

See Also

• Gooner Kid

References