Mettaton

Mettaton is a major character and the fourth boss in Undertale. Mettaton is a robot with a SOUL, whose body was built by Alphys. He is the sole television star of the Underground. Mettaton poses as an entertainment robot turned human killing robot in Hotland, though he later reveals the truth to the protagonist at the end of the CORE.
== Profile ==
=== Appearance ===
==== Initial Form ====
Mettaton originally appears as a gray, largely rectangular box with a 4x5 grid of rectangular lights at the top, similar to the mechanism in Snowdin Forest used for Papyrus's Tile Puzzle. The grid of lights can change colors between red, yellow, green, and blue, and Mettaton uses these color changes in place of facial expressions. He has four dials along the bottom of his body, and the bottom, he has a single leg which ends in a wheel. He has two segmented robotic arms which end in white gloves.
==== Mettaton EX ====
After having the switch on his back flipped in the Neutral or True Pacifist Route, Mettaton transforms into Mettaton EX; a new body he specially requested Alphys make for him. In this humanoid form, he has black hair with a long fringe that seems to cover his right eye, pale "skin" and visible metal segments below and above his left eye.
He has a pink chest piece, a narrow metallic waist with a box contraption, and black shoulder pads above his segmented arms, which end in gloves. The chest piece has what appear to be a speaker and some knob or gauge, while the waist has two parts that seem to act as a locking mechanism that holds his "heart-shaped core," as they both lose white pixels during his "heart-to-heart" attack. His long black-clad legs end in pink high-heeled boots.
==== Mettaton NEO ====
After being confronted by the protagonist on the Genocide Route, Mettaton transforms into Mettaton NEO, which resembles Mettaton EX, but has a more combat-oriented design, however Mettaton NEO can be killed by a single attack and has no attacks of his own.
His right forearm is replaced by what appears to be a cannon, pauldrons clad his shoulders, which are shaped like legs and are longer than his arms, and he has wings on his back. The soul on his waist points upwards in a more monster-like manner, and he has a heart shape engraved on his chest plate like Undyne the Undying, also mimicking the Delta Rune in the same ways. His hair on the right side is spiked out, revealing an entirely black segment of his face, with a sparkle or crosshair in place of his right eye.
=== Personality ===
Mettaton is a confident, charismatic, and charming TV host that loves drama, action, and violence. He lives for his ratings and adores performing. He supposedly strikes a pose when he does something wrong and makes time on his various shows to beat up "heel-turning villains." He shows a rather shallow appreciation for existence at times. He has a strong craving for attention and seems very egotistical, shown when he boasts about the beauty of his true form. However, despite his seemingly self-centered personality, he deeply cares about the seemingly positive impact his show has had on the inhabitants of the Underground. He has also shown soft spots for several characters, such as Alphys and Napstablook. He also appears to be among the fewer characters in the Underground that has no hate or prejudice against humans despite knowing about the monsters' history with them, since his initial attempts to kill the protagonist were just him playing along with Alphys's plan, and he outright tells the protagonist he has no desire to hurt humans and is far more interested in simply entertaining. While he did attempt to kill the protagonist, it was to prevent Asgore from taking their SOUL and be seen as a hero/savior to humankind, further emphasizing his lack of prejudice. This is also shown when he is killed during the Alphys Ending of the Neutral Route, even asking if the protagonist is "completely evil," showing they still have some faith in them. On the flip side, he has also been noted to be a very demanding boss who is very unpleasant to work for, especially according to Burgerpants, who initially considered working for him a dream, but has since grown to strongly despise him. Though this is contradicted by dialogue from Mettaton's other employees when he's killed in the Neutral Route, suggesting that Burgerpants is exaggerating, or this behavior is only targeted toward him.
== Main Story ==
=== Neutral Route ===
When meeting Alphys in the Lab, the protagonist is warned about a machine that she had created, Mettaton. Alphys describes it as a robot that was made to be a TV star but recently had anti-human combat features added as a way of making him more useful.
Immediately after this warning, Mettaton bursts through the wall (noted to be only a few feet wide, indicating that he was lying in wait for the protagonist for some time) and forces the protagonist into a deadly quiz show.
==== Quiz Show ====
Mettaton asks a series of multiple-choice questions that must be answered correctly within several seconds (the number says 30, but goes down approximately two numbers per second, giving only 15 seconds to answer). If incorrectly answered or not answered within the time limit, Mettaton fires an unavoidable electric shock that halves the protagonist's health. In spite of this, it is impossible to die during this quiz show. Alphys on the top right gives answers via hand motion; realizing this, Mettaton chooses to humiliate her by quizzing the protagonist on the identity of her unrequited love interest. Regardless of the protagonist's choice, Mettaton ultimately departs, concluding that the quiz show has lost all dramatic tension.
==== Cooking with a Killer Robot ====
As the protagonist journeys through Hotland, Mettaton entraps them in deadly pastiches of various media genres. First, he forces the protagonist to become his assistant in a cooking show where Mettaton is preparing a cake with a human SOUL as the main ingredient, and he attempts to kill the protagonist with a chainsaw to attain it. Alphys calls in as an interruption and suggests that some viewers may be vegan in an attempt to stop Mettaton from harvesting the protagonist's SOUL as an ingredient, so instead, Mettaton points towards a human SOUL-flavored substitute on top of a faraway cupboard.
However, the cupboard begins to shoot up from the ground rapidly, forcing the protagonist to use the jetpack feature previously installed on their phone by Alphys. They fly to the top and retrieve the substitute within a time limit of 1 minute set by Mettaton while he drops eggs, flour, and milk, all of which slow the protagonist's ascent.
The milk slows the protagonist down a whole lot.
* If the protagonist reaches the substitute within the time limit, Mettaton states, like all cooking shows, he had already baked the cake ahead of time before leaving.
* If they fail, Mettaton suddenly claims the show is on commercial break and refuses to kill them as there are currently no viewers.
Either way, he comments that he was foiled yet again by Alphys. Upon interacting with the substitute after this encounter, it shows the can was stuck to the table, so the protagonist would not have been able to get the substitute given the chance.
==== MTT News ====
Secondly comes a breaking news segment, in which Mettaton asks the protagonist to report on one of the several items within a room ( a dog, a video game, a movie script, a basketball, a present, and a seemingly normal glass of water), which all turn out to be bombs hidden by Mettaton. Mettaton then scatters the bombs around the area, and the protagonist is forced to find and defuse all of them with one of Alphys's phone installments before a larger bomb in the center of the room goes off.
* If the protagonist defuses all the bombs in time, Mettaton declares that the bomb now explodes in two seconds instead of two minutes.
* If the protagonist has not disabled all the bombs until ten seconds before the big bomb explodes, the time slows substantially.
* If the protagonist has not disabled all the bombs before time expires, Mettaton states that the protagonist failed to disarm them all within three minutes. However, even factoring in the slower passage of time through the last ten "seconds" of play, the total amount of time given to defuse the bombs still amounts to under three minutes.
Regardless of whether the bombs were defused or not, Alphys hacks the big bomb and disables it.
During the news segment, a ticker at the bottom of the screen reports the following news.
==== UNDERTALE the Musical ====
Thirdly and finally, Mettaton traps the protagonist within a musical, where Mettaton sings about a forbidden love between him, a monster; and the protagonist, a human. He mentions how sad it is that they must be sent to the dungeon, before opening a trapdoor underneath them into a room with a colored tile puzzle. Mettaton announces that the protagonist must pass the colored tile puzzle within a set time before a line of flame comes at them from the side and burns them to death.
* If the protagonist manages to complete the puzzle, Mettaton deactivates the flames "knowing" that Alphys would have done so.
* If the protagonist fails, the flames draw near, only for Alphys to disable them.
** If the protagonist has stepped on a green tile, Mettaton reminds them that the tile signals a monster, which turns out to be Mettaton himself.
** If the protagonist has not stepped on a green tile, Mettaton repeatedly says "well" before acknowledging that the protagonist never stepped on a green tile, but still fights them.
Mettaton proceeds to engage the protagonist in battle after the tile puzzle. However, Alphys has one final installment on the phone she had given to the protagonist. This yellow button fires a projectile at Mettaton, which the protagonist can use in succession. Mettaton acts like he is defeated from such projectile and flees. If the protagonist does not activate yellow mode, Mettaton attacks with boxes until the protagonist has barely any health left.
==== End of CORE Encounter ====
After the protagonist reaches the end of the CORE, they are once more confronted by Mettaton. This time, however, Mettaton reveals that he had re-arranged the CORE and hired monsters so as to attempt to kill the protagonist legitimately. He states that Alphys had set up an extensive plan to self-insert herself into the story because she liked the protagonist so much and wanted to feel important by helping them. All of the previous threats from Mettaton were entirely fake, and everything was acted out, and used by Alphys to ally herself further with the protagonist; Alphys plans to intervene in the fight between Mettaton and the protagonist by "deactivating" Mettaton and thus appearing heroic to them. This time, however, Mettaton has made plans to prevent Alphys's aid, so that he could have an actual battle against the protagonist, and locks the door to prevent Alphys from entering. He explains that he wants to take their SOUL so that he can leave the Underground and become a superstar on the Surface. This way, Asgore cannot destroy the Barrier and re-ignite The War of Humans and Monsters, which would take a toll on his views.
==== Mettaton EX ====
Mettaton attacks the protagonist, but under the advice of Alphys, the protagonist tricks Mettaton into turning around so that they can flip the switch on his back to make him vulnerable. This switch transforms Mettaton into Mettaton EX and begins the true game show. By taking damage, using popular brand items, or using specific ACTs to raise the Ratings of the show to above 10 000 (or 12 000, if he still has legs), Mettaton stops fighting.
To his surprise, this is the highest-rated episode he has ever had and begins to take call-ins from viewers. Several callers, the first of which is Napstablook, convince Mettaton that he is highly valued in the Underground, and is the primary (perhaps only) source of entertainment that many of the inhabitants have. He is moved by their passion for the show and decides that he no longer wishes to leave the Underground, as well as explaining that the protagonist is strong enough to defeat Asgore. He then mentions about his inefficient power consumption, and shuts down, leaving only his upper torso remaining. Alphys then manages to unlock the door and assess Mettaton EX's state, being thankful that he was simply out of power. She acts very stressed at the thought of Mettaton being truly killed. After that, Mettaton's body can be found in the Lab and is undergoing repairs.
If Mettaton EX is killed, his overworld sprite reverts to his box form, though visibly severely damaged. Examining the wreck warrants the description "It's completely trashed." Additionally, the people of Hotland and MTT Resort talk about his death, and some are in a somber mood.
==== Mystery Key ====
If the protagonist purchases the Mystery Key from Bratty and Catty, they can enter the house to the right of Napstablook's. The room is primarily pink, with a bed, a star-patterned pillow, star-patterned wallpaper, a pink TV, a window, and a star imprinted rug. Through a series of diaries, the house is shown to be owned by another ghost known as "Napstablook's cousin" within the game (though Papyrus states that his headcanon name for him was "Happstablook", and the room name of his house is room_water_hapstablook). After meeting Alphys, she designed a body for Mettaton to inhabit.
Using the Mystery Key during Mettaton EX's fight prompts him to pretend "it isn't there."
=== True Pacifist Route ===
After the protagonist has finished their date with Alphys, Mettaton's deactivated body can be found on the second floor of the Lab, atop her work table for repairs.
In the True Lab, there is a log entry stating that Alphys fears that Mettaton may not talk to her anymore after receiving his new body due to his attachment to fame.
At the end of the game, when all of the Monsters encountered as bosses have united before Flowey intervenes, Mettaton EX shows his leg from the right side of the screen. He tells Alphys and Undyne that they should kiss already since the entire crowd wants it.
==== Epilogue ====
After defeating Asriel, if the protagonist returns to Waterfall before exiting New Home, Mettaton is seen standing outside his old house, having recruited Napstablook as his sound mixer and Shyren as his backup singer. During the credits, he is shown on tour, able to use his original box form in conjunction with his new body's legs.
=== Genocide Route ===
Mettaton shows up in Alphys's Lab and tells the protagonist that he will not battle them, knowing that he is no match for them. He shows up at the CORE and realizes that the protagonist means not only to kill monsters but all of humanity as well. Claiming his original human eradication functions were never fully removed, he transforms into Mettaton NEO. Despite all the buildup, he has no attacks, and the protagonist can destroy him in a single attack.
Mettaton NEO has two different variations depending on whether the player is on track for the Genocide Route. This is determined by three conditions. Mettaton NEO's Genocide Route variation requires all three of these conditions to be met:
* Completing the Hotland/Core kill count
* Killing Royal Guards
* Killing Muffet
Due to a glitch, the game always counts Royal Guards/Muffet as killed if the previous encounter was killed. This applies even if Muffet or Royal Guards are spared, which would yield Mettaton NEO's Genocide Route variation (assuming the Hotland/CORE kill count is met) despite the Genocide Route having been aborted.
For Mettaton NEO's Genocide Route variation, any attack that hits will be scripted to inflict anywhere from 900,000 to 999,999 damage and destroys Mettaton NEO in a single hit. Missing does not abort the Genocide Route as the battle continues until Mettaton NEO is destroyed. Upon his death, Mettaton NEO laments that the protagonist does not want to join his fan club and the protagonist's EXP is set to 50,000, resulting in their LOVE reaching 19.
If any of the three above conditions are not met, Mettaton NEO will be in a different variation that ultimately causes the Genocide Route to be aborted and leads to the Alphys Ending of the Neutral Route. He is still destroyed in a single attack; however, this attack only deals 30,000 to 39,999 damage. Mettaton NEO points out the protagonist's lack of killing intent, telling them that they are not "absolutely evil" before dying. This event causes the protagonist to only gain 10,000 EXP.
== In Battle ==
== Relationships ==
=== The Protagonist ===
Initially, Mettaton actively antagonized the protagonist under the assumption his anti-human combat features along with directive errors gave him an intensified hate for humans and a need to murder them. This was proven to be an act, however, as Mettaton mentions loving humanity, but continued to go against the protagonist on his terms to take their SOUL and prevent a possible war by Asgore. After their battle, however, he was confident the protagonist was strong enough to avoid this themselves.
=== Alphys ===
Mettaton initially bonded over their common interest in the culture of humanity, and he is grateful of Alphys for making his physical body. Soon after he receives his initial body, he often belittles her and her interests. However, he owed Alphys enough to play along with her plan to act out the role of a malfunctioning robot before eventually going on his agenda with the protagonist. Despite this, in the ending where he is given the role as king, he mentions how he regrets being cruel to her before she went missing.
=== Napstablook ===
Before he got his body, he was Napstablook's cousin, helping them with the snail farm and living next-door to them. They seemed very close, to the point that Mettaton originally declared that he would never leave them behind and often called them Blooky (an alias he would keep). Although he had since left them for stardom, he obviously cared for his cousin, looked regretful when Napstablook called into the program to give gratitude for his show ever since he left. Once he had his permanent new body, he immediately recruited his cousin on his tour so they could stay together.
== Gallery ==
 Mettaton artwork poster.png | "Mettaton: Live from Hotland," a tour poster of Mettaton and a live studio audience sold on Fangamer
 Mettaton artwork Little Buddy.png | Mettaton Little Buddy figurine sold on Fangamer.
 Mettaton EX artwork Poseable.png | Mettaton EX Poseable Figurine sold on Fangamer.
 Mettaton artwork plush.png | Mettaton plush sold on Fangamer.
 Mettaton tarot.png | Mettaton's tarot card as Major Arcana XVII, "The Star."
 Mettaton NEO tarot.png | Mettaton NEO's tarot card as "The Star."
 Mettaton artwork pin.png | The Anime Friends Button Set sold on Fangamer sells Pins with both of Mettaton's forms
 Famitsu screenshot Mettaton and Mad Mew Mew.png | Artwork of Mettaton and Mad Mew Mew having a dance battle.
== Trivia ==
* If "Metta", "Mett" (case insensitive) or "MTT" is typed for the fallen child's name, the response becomes "OOOOH!!! ARE YOU PROMOTING MY BRAND?" and allows the name to be used.
* The name "Mettaton" can be interpreted and decoded into various different forms:
** The name could also be a combination of "metal" and "automaton" or "zettaton."
** "Mettaton" may be a portmanteau of "Meta" and "ton," as Mettaton offers many instances of meta-commentary on the structure of Undertale. Examples include: referencing the viewer if one picks "Don't Know" for Alphys's crush question during the quiz show, offering a newscast to the fourth wall while the protagonist is visible on-screen, his words turning into bombs in the news report, changing the window name during his musical segment, mentioning room numbers before his colored tile maze, discussing Toriel plushies in the epilogue.
** "Mettaton" is similar in pronunciation and spelling to "Metatron," the highest angel in Judeo-Islamic lore, also known as the Voice of God and Recording Angel, whose name is transliterated into Greek as MTT. This could be a reference to Shin Megami Tensei's Metatron specifically, as both have metallic appearances, have similar poses, and are very powerful late-game bosses.
* Mettaton's initial form:
** In his box form, Mettaton's overworld sprite has five squares under the main screen, while his battle sprite only has 4.
** Mettaton's box form is identical to the console that operates the colored tile maze in Snowdin Forest, and this machine may have been Mettaton himself; during his colored tile maze, Mettaton remarks that the protagonist has seen the puzzle "ABOUT A HUNDRED ROOMS AGO" and presumes that they remember the rules.
* Out of every character in the game, Mettaton has the most songs associated with him, at 14 songs (15 if CORE is counted).
* Along with Flowey, Mettaton is one of the only characters in the game to have a voice clip, exclaiming "Oh, yes!" when he transforms into Mettaton EX, and "Yeah!" when attacked in his Mettaton EX form or when the protagonist steps on a green tile in the Multicolor Tile Puzzle.
* Undertale Version differences:
** In Undertale v1.001, Mettaton's stats for his box form have been changed from "10 ATK 999 DEF" to "ATK 30 DEF 255." 255 is the maximum value of an unsigned 8-bit integer, and is often the maximum value possible for things in video games.
** Mettaton EX recognizes answers for "sexy," "foxy," and "tantalizing" in his essay question, but since the X and Z keys cannot be inputted without holding CTRL, they are only possible inputs in the PlayStation and Nintendo Switch versions.Question about Mettaton's Essay - RedditUndertale - The Cutting Room Floor
* Mettaton shares similar designs with Undyne:
** Mettaton EX has shoulder pads similar to Undyne's, both of which are longer and spikier in the Genocide Route.
** Both have one of their eyes covered in the Neutral and True Pacifist Routes. Undyne has her left eye covered, and Mettaton EX's right eye is covered. In the Genocide Route, these are revealed, with Mettaton NEO's sparkling/crosshair eye and Undyne the Undying's empty socket that frequently emits a spear-shaped flash of light.
** Both Undyne the Undying and Mettaton NEO feature hearts on their chest pieces in the Genocide Route.
** Undyne holds a spear in her right hand, and Mettaton NEO has an arm cannon replacing his right hand.
** Both of their battles on the Genocide Route feature the Battle Against a True Hero leitmotif.
* Unused content:
** Based off of old official artwork by Temmie Chang it is likely that Mettaton was originally intended to have claw hands.
** According to the Undertale Kickstarter, there were originally plans for the protagonist to have a robot husband, which is presumed to be Mettaton."Seriously, you can literally have a robot husband." – Toby Fox. June 24, 2013. Kickstarter. This feature ended up being cut out of the final version of the game for unknown reasons."After 2.5 years... some critical features promised in the KS changed. Example: I said you could marry a robot. Actually, you can't marry a robot." – Toby Fox. June 30, 2015. Kickstarter. Additional evidence that points to this event is an unused variation of the Start Menu that can be found in the game's files and explains why the full menu suddenly includes Mettaton and Napstablook.
** Unused, Mettaton EX:
*** The Mettaton EX fight, according to Toby, was the hardest one for him to design. There were many attack ideas for the Mettaton EX fight that were never used, such as more tiny Mettaton robots, and disco dancing robots that threw stars.
*** Mettaton EX originally saved images of all the essays to the computer's hard drive. This feature was removed for being too buggy.
*** Several unused sprites for Mettaton EX's head show his right eye, and what appears to be the machinery on his face.Sprites "spr_mettface_defeated_" 9 through 11. Imgur
* Inspirations:
** Mettaton is at least partially inspired by Twitter user nerdbotmk2.
** Mettaton EX slightly resembles Bob Sparker and was inspired by the character.
* Mettaton's design is also similar to other characters outside of Undertale.
** Mettaton's box form resembles the coin-operated robot Cooker from the Wallace and Gromit short "A Grand Day Out," as confirmed by the artbook.
** Mettaton may be inspired by the character of TV Dinnah from the 2009 video game Little King's Story, another TV presenter boss fight who wants to cook the protagonist on a cooking show and gives them a life-or-death quiz. TV Dinnah also somewhat resembles Mettaton's box form. Little King's Story was directed and produced by Yoshiro Kimura, whom Toby Fox has praised in-person during an interview for creating games that inspired Undertale.
* In the trailer announcing the game's special edition, Mettaton's hands are shown motioning towards the boxed special edition; it was confirmed in a Twitch livestream of Super Mario RPG by Legends of Localization that the costumed hands filmed for the sequence belong to Heidi "Poe" Mandelin, wife of Clyde "Tomato" Mandelin, who was involved in the fan translation of Mother 3, and also co-wrote the book Legends of Localization Book 3: UNDERTALE, a book about the game's Japanese localization. Poe also stated that the sequence was filmed in reverse; the footage was then played backwards, to achieve the final shot seen in the trailer.
== References ==
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Category:Boss
Category:Main characters
Category:CORE