Napstablook

REALLY NOT FEELIN UP TO IT RIGHT NOW. SORRY.

Napstablook's harmless text attack

Napstablook (JP: ナプスタブルーク) (/ˈnæpstəˌbluːk/) is a minor character and the first miniboss in Undertale. Napstablook is a melancholic ghost monster and musician/DJ who lives in Waterfall, though they occasionally visit the Ruins.

Profile

Appearance

Napstablook's design is that of a simple ghost: mostly black and white, a long white body, two eyes with black sclerae (the white parts of the eyes on normal eyes), white pupils, and a mouth. A thin black line separates the eyes. After encountering Napstablook in Waterfall, they wear a pair of generic black headphones for the rest of the game.

Similar to Sans, Napstablook speaks in all lower case, not even capitalizing names or sentence starters. There are a few exceptions, however. As for punctuation, Napstablook frequently uses ellipses, often with more than three dots (sometimes many more), even at the beginning of some sentences. They also tend to omit most question marks and some periods, while using commas (and most periods) correctly.

Personality

Napstablook is a dour introvert with low self-esteem. Napstablook cries in battle, which may indicate some form of depression, anxiety, or sorrow. Despite this, Napstablook is courteous to others and treats the protagonist as a guest when they visit Napstablook's home (even if attacked in the Neutral Route). They often employ self-deprecation and apologize for any inconveniences to be polite.

Etymology

The name "Napstablook" came from a random English word generator website Toby Fox used. Due to the name being similar to Napster, a defunct music sharing service, he added further connections linking it to Napstablook's identity. The name "Dapper Blook" is a play on the phrase "dapper bloke", which is a British phrase referring to a sharply-dressed person (usually male).

The name could also reference the protagonist's first encounter with Napstablook. In the Ruins, Napstablook is found sleeping directly in the protagonist's path, with no way to go around. That is—Napstablook naps to block the protagonist.

Main story

Neutral Route

Napstablook blocking the protagonist's way in the Ruins.

Napstablook blocks the protagonist's way in the Ruins and pretends to be asleep by repeatedly saying "z" out loud. If the protagonist cheers them up, Napstablook thanks the protagonist for being so kind and then leaves. Depleting Napstablook's HP makes the protagonist lose one "experience point", leaving EXP unaffected. Because of this, it does not cause a True Pacifist Route to end and is a hint early in the game that experience points are not the same as EXP. Napstablook admits that they were lowering their HP to be polite before leaving.

Napstablook appears in the center-bottom basement room of the Ruins' six-holed puzzle room if spared in the initial encounter. After the protagonist talks to them, Napstablook realizes ghosts can fly and disappears.

Napstablook does not appear again until the protagonist fights the Mad Dummy in Waterfall's garbage dump; Napstablook interrupts the fight by crying tears (mistaken for acid rain) on the Mad Dummy until they run away. After apologizing for breaking up the "fun" the protagonist was having with the Mad Dummy, Napstablook invites the protagonist to visit their home.

Napstablook lying down.

Upon arrival, Napstablook invites the protagonist to listen to their music. Napstablook has three playable CDs: Spooktune, Spookwave, and Ghouliday. They also offer the protagonist a ghost sandwich to eat if the protagonist approaches and interacts with the fridge. However, the protagonist cannot eat the sandwich because it phases through them. After this, Napstablook suggests that they lie on the floor and "feel like garbage" together. If the protagonist lies down for 20 seconds, the music becomes calmer and the background changes to a space scene. If the protagonist refuses to lie down, Napstablook exits the house through the right wall and does not return until the protagonist leaves.

East of Napstablook's house is Blook Acres, another location where the protagonist encounters Napstablook. Napstablook is the sole employee of Blook Acres snail farm because all of their cousins left to gain corporeal forms. Here, the protagonist can play Thundersnail.

During Mettaton EX's battle, Napstablook is the first viewer to call and express gratitude for Mettaton's television programs, as shown by the typing quirks - missing capitalization, abundance of ellipses and the frequent use of 'oh' - and the way Mettaton says "NO, WAIT! WAIT, BL..." suggesting that he was referring to Napstablook as "Blooky", Napstablook's nickname.

True Pacifist Route

In the epilogue, Napstablook and Mettaton are in front of their houses; Mettaton recruited Napstablook as his celebrity sound-mixer. Napstablook's SOUL was not absorbed by Asriel. In the credits, Napstablook tours with Mettaton, Shyren, and Burgerpants.

Genocide Route

Napstablook is fought as normal if the protagonist reaches them before exhausting the kill counter for the Ruins. Sparing them does not abort the Genocide Route.

If the protagonist has exhausted the kill counter for the Ruins before fighting Napstablook, they fade away when the protagonist enters their room. Napstablook does not intervene in the Glad Dummy fight, and they do not show up in their house.

In battle

For an in-battle description, see Napstablook/In battle.

Creation and development

According to Toby Fox in Legends of Localization Book 3: UNDERTALE, Napstablook's name was originally entirely randomly generated. Toby then derived Napstablook's details of being a ghost (from the word blook, likely because it sounded like "spook") that naps (from the word napsta, as in "naps") from their name. When early playtesters noted the name was reminiscent of the music sharing service Napster, he added the references to Napster as well, with Napstablook's computer being on a "music-sharing forum" and Napstablook's general affinity for music.

The UNDERTALE Art Book reveals that Napstablook was not originally planned to be in the game, and was just a placeholder character for the Encounter user interface mockups. Toby's friends seemed to like the character, so he ended up including Napstablook into the game properly.

While the Undertale Demo released on May 23, 2013 refers to Napstablook with it/its and they/them pronouns, Napstablook was also referred to with he/him pronouns several times during the game's development. One instance of he/him pronouns occurred in an update on the Undertale Kickstarter page on July 3, 2013, though Toby would later state in a joke tweet that he considers the Kickstarter to be non-canon. Another instance of he/him pronouns exists in an early design document shown during the 10th Anniversary Stream. There also exists a prototype of Undertale created just a week before release that has Undyne refer to Napstablook a couple of times with he/him pronouns. This particular dialogue was changed to solely they/them pronouns by the game's official release.

Mistakes regarding Napstablook's pronouns are occasionally made by Toby in official post-release material:

• In the UNDERTALE Art Book, Napstablook used to be referred to with "he/him" pronouns. In the digital version of the artbook, this has since been changed to singular "they/them" pronouns.
• Additionally, Napstablook was referred with "he/him" pronouns by Toby during the first day of the 10th Anniversary Stream, but he later clarified on the second day that this was an error caused by his voice-to-text program.

Outside of Undertale

Kickstarter

On the Undertale Kickstarter's campaign page, Napstablook appears below the "Thank you very much!" banner, and expresses disappointment that they missed the Kickstarter. Napstablook assumes that this is fine, as they are certain they would "mess things up anyway".

UNDERTALE Alarm Clock

In the UNDERTALE Alarm Clock, Napstablook has their own excerpts. Napstablook details about appreciating the snow, watching their tears turn into ice crystals, and Mettaton's ski resort request.

Napstablook also appears in Mettaton's Winter Dialogue, and at the end of Undyne's Winter Dialogue and Asgore's Winter Dialogue.

Deltarune

Main article: Napstablook

Napstablook appears as a minor character in Deltarune, where they are a police officer working as a member of Hometown's police force alongside their superior Undyne. They reside in a ghost-shaped house identical to the one from Undertale with two relatives, the nobody and the irritable ghost.

Gallery

• 
  Napstablook's tarot card as Major Arcana XVIII, "The Moon".
• 
  A Napstablook button can be found in the Anime Friends Button Set sold on Fangamer.
• 
  The Napstablook Pillow Plush sold on Fangamer.
• 
  The Napstablook lamp sold on Fangamer.
• 
  Artwork from Undertale's 5th anniversary.
• 
  Artwork from Undertale's 5th anniversary.

Trivia

• Naming the fallen human "Napsta" or "Blooky" prompts the message "............ (They're powerless to stop you.)" and allows the name to be chosen.
• Napstablook and the Dummy are the only enemies in Hard Mode that do not change in difficulty.
• They may be an allusion to "ghost producers", who are composers who sell their works to people who can claim the production as their own.
  • Supporting this, Dummy!, Spider Dance, Pathetic House, and Mad Mew Mew's theme share the leitmotif of Napstablook's theme, Ghost Fight.
• In the Japanese translation, Napstablook uses "kimi" to refer to a man.
• The image that shows when you lie down is the "Hubble Ultra-Deep Field".

See also

• Napstablook article on the Deltarune Wiki