Local Child Makes Friends By Picking Fights

(alternate title: Goat Mom Did Nothing Wrong)

Undertale's turn-based battle system features a bullet-hell style form of combat. Both player and monster are abstracted into shapes, with the player represented as a heart. The heart, we are told, is Frisk's soul, a crystallized form of everything that Frisk is. In battle, all actions are carried out with Frisk's soul. 

Conversely, however, the attacks that the player must avoid are also abstractions and representations of the monsters' movements. Some of these representations are fairly direct - for example, when Toriel casts fire magic against Frisk, the player must dodge small flames across their screen. Other representations are abstracted, however - such as the smaller bugs representing Whimsum's attacks. 

That said, there is much to be learned about the monster and their personalities from their attacks alone. Both Greater and Lesser Dog are represented by pixelated Samoyeds and eagerly jump or send barks to meet the player in their excitement. Napstablook's attacks are marked by his mood, such as the series of tears or the text "Not really feeling up to it, right now". Papyrus's final attack is a series of bones spelling out "Cool Dude" to let the player know who he truly is. 

However, it is Toriel's attacks that are the most representative of a character's true personality. In the final battle before leaving the Ruins, Frisk must fight past Toriel in order to leave. However, Toriel challenges Frisk to fight, and at first her attacks seem formidable, pitting the player against a variety of fire magics. But, if enough damage is incurred (usually if the player has 2HP left), the behavior of her attacks changes. The player no longer receives direct hits from Toriel's spells, and if the player moves towards the attacks, the attacks move away from the player, as though avoiding the player altogether. This behavior suggests that Toriel, though set to keep Frisk from leaving, cannot bring herself to truly harm Frisk, instead appearing to attack while refraining from any injury.  At least to me, this revelation was particularly devastating when I comprehended the situation that we had been placed in - that while I the player was at liberty to kill or spare Toriel, she would rather die than hurt or kill Frisk. This difference in resolves and priorities reversed the normal power dynamic of the boss battle, placing the player as the dominant force while Toriel, the boss, was unable to truly fight back.