 Content on this article may spoil current key events of the comic. |
 Content on this article may be incomplete or inaccurate. Reason being: Heavy WIP, many TBA sections |
The Figments are minibosses created by Asriel encountered in the Rift. They are constructs which represent parts of Asriel's psyche, maintaining area of interest within the dimension that block the way forward. Destroying them causes their areas to lose color and be damaged, opening the way to the next area.
There are five figments which have appeared so far, being the Effigy of Ego, the Pawn of Possessiveness, the Fiend of Fatality, the Entity of Emptiness, and the Doll of Denial. There will be a total of six figments in Rift.
Profile[]
Main Story[]
Throughout the Rift are areas created by Asriel that block the way forward, in order to sway Frisk, Chara (and later Papyrus) from fighting him. In each area, a "Figment" maintains the realistic illusion, and they must be dealt with to progress further.
Effigy of Ego maintains the Rift Cathedral. It initially lays dormant at the end of the Cathedral, wanting to be given "tribute" for allowing Chara to live again. When they refuse twice, it breaks out of it's golden shell and attacks, trying to act as an almighty emissary of it's "god" so they can "repent". However, it begins to break down when Chara rejects it and makes clear their feelings for Frisk, and it eventually falls apart when Chara completely rejects them, causing them to question their "divinity" before dying, taking the Cathedral with it.
Pawn of Possessiveness maintains the Angel's Palace. It initially takes the form of a young, sepia-colored Asriel that watches over Chara, slowly becoming infected with golden flowers as Chara escapes it and rejects the Palace's "gifts". When Chara and Frisk reunite at the Palace entrance, it sneak attacks them by hiding in a gift box before revealing their true monstrous form and ensnares Chara in vines, it's gaze keeping them from struggling. Frisk distracts it by heckling them, allowing Chara to flee and reunite. It begins to break when Chara gives an injured Frisk some chocolate the Palace gave to Chara, and further deteriorates when Frisk hugs Chara and affirms their feelings. It falls when Frisk and Chara abandon it, it's entire existence tied to pleasing Chara, taking the Palace with it.
Fiend of Fatality maintains "Kill or BE Killed". It initially takes the form of Asriel after being empowered by Chara's SOUL, being constantly shot at while walking across the landscape. After it reaches back home and "dies", it reveals its true form to the pair and attacks. During the fight, as it's nature as a gestalt of both Chara and Asriel at the time, its Chara side constantly blames itself while its Asriel side doubles down on not killing the humans when Chara told them to. Ultimately, is defeated when Chara apologizes for placing the burden of killing on Asriel and then embraces it, telling it they do not need a "new world" to be happy. Fulfilled, it fades away peacefully while thanking Chara, taking the hellish stage with it.
Entity of Emptiness maintains "Empty Inside". It initially takes the form of Flowey's six SOUL form, chronicling the flower's decent into sociopathy brought about by his inability to feel love, and his curiosity of "what if" thanks to the power of SAVE to do everything he can with the original timeline. After being confronted by the trio, it questions if they'd be any better before transforming to make sure they know "the true meaning of this world". At first it does nothing, mocking them for not fighting and even predicting Papyrus's words. When Chara and Frisk strike first, in begins attacking back in earnest, only for them to do nothing immediately afterwards. It snaps when the party refuses to do anything, eventually fading away and falling into despair due to not wanting to be tossed away by Asriel for falling him. However, it begins to reform when it states no matter what he tries, Asriel will always be empty, only to be killed by Asriel himself as punishment for "talking back", taking the simulation with it.
Doll of Denial maintains "Happiness Abound". It initially takes the form of a scribbly-looking Asriel that lives with similarly scribbly versions of his old family in a saccharine storybook. Once all three family members of erased by using evidence of the family's flaws and mishaps, the Doll takes its true form and attacks the party. It tries to convince the party to join in Asriel's new world, claiming it to be a paradise and rejecting the current world. However, once the party manages to snap all but one of its strings, it soon begins to cry when it reveals that something inside of Asriel is making him incapable of accepting the Inverted Fate timeline. The party relents from defeating it and instead, asks them to show what it is keeping Asriel from moving forward. In one last rhyme, it states it's creator's "secret" is buried deep somewhere in the Rift, and to take them to it, it snaps it's final string, destroying itself in the process.
Appearance[]
Effigy of Ego resembles an angelic version of Asriel Dreemur adorned in white robes with golden shoulder pads. His body is white with golden horns and a halo sitting above the head in addition to angel wings. His eyes are black with grey irises and his face has a grin plastered on it. The overall style of his sprite is designed to resemble an realistic art style similar to Photoshop Flowey.
Pawn of Possessiveness resembles a young, distorted Asriel illusion with a ghostly tail and many vines and flowers growing from and around it. The ghost wears a green striped shirt and it's body is wrapped in vines with brown, reddish thorns. The illusion Asriel's head is a light sepia, has empty eye sockets and a dislocated jaw, and has a dark green hand with brown reddish nails emerging out it's mouth with a yellow singular eye embedded in it's palm. It uses four extra vines as limbs, all of which have thorns and two of which end in large claws with red nails. In addition, it summons two photorealistic arms with red claws, eyeballs and thorns to hold the battle box. The overall style of its sprite comes from downscaling a drawing to match a battle sprite size. It maintains the Angel's Palace.
Fiend of Fatality initially takes the form of Asriel after being empowered by Chara's SOUL, being a buff white goat with a monstrous jawline and spikey arms while wearing a toga and carrying Chara's body. Once they reach the end and fall to their knees, their form dissolves to reveal their actual self. The Fiend of Fatality has a golden, draconic, skeletal head, grey ghostly arms and a bloody red body with bullets embedded into their back, standing on a tail of sorts. They also have a white angelic wing and a black demonic wing, which subtly showcases Asriel's views of Chara and themselves. Additionally, there are two shadows besides them who resemble Chara (speaking in red text) and Asriel (speaking in white text). Their art style resembles a watercolour painting with all of the photorealistic elements kept for only their attacks.
Entity of Emptiness initially takes the form of Flowey in his six SOUL form. After transforming, it resembles a realistic plushie doll shaped like Asriel's child self wrapped with thorns. It wears a green and yellow shirt and black shorts. It's chest has a hollow opening in the shape of a heart, with a grey, realistic human heart beating inside. It's head meanwhile resembles Flowey's if it was a doll, with its various expressions looking either photoshopped or distorted.
Doll of Denial initially takes the form of a white and green scribble of Asriel, with a simplistic smile. Once confronted, it's eyes change from a simple dots to fearsome red eyes while it's clothes become the green with yellow stripes of Asriel's child form. It then reveals it's true form as a scary masked, big-headed doll version of Asriel with a tiny body with stubby arms, losing the pants. It gains two extra hands in the form of claws vaguely resembling Photoshop Flowey's plant hands, held up by two strings each coming from a spinning red portal. Under the mask, a hollow void with some white sketched in.
Personality[]
Effigy of Ego is incredibly egotistical, and sanctimonious due to being an embodiment of Asriel's god complex and self-aggrandizing ego. Ego does not like being criticized and becomes hostile when Frisk and Chara start questioning them and calling Asriel out on his hypocrisy, with the effigy becoming angrier and angrier as their godhood is questioned. When Chara makes it clear that they don't want Asriel putting them on a pedestal, Ego refuses to listen and continues with their grandiosity. After being rejected enough, the effigy starts breaking down, tries to force Chara to reconsider and repent before pleading with them to stop fighting.
Pawn of Possessiveness embodies Asriel's selfish desires to keep Chara for himself and even keeps Chara trapped in vines for most of the battle. It is controlling, deliberately restricting Frisk's combat options by covering every box but ACT in vines in addition to some of it's attacks blocking Frisk's vision. Whenever Frisk calls Asriel out on his cowardice and controlling behavior, Possessiveness will refuse to engage with anything they say and overall acts like a jealous child who can't stand Chara having other friends. As it breaks down, it's revealed that it bases it's own self worth on Chara and is obsessed with making them happy, doing everything in it's power to keep Frisk and Chara in the fight even as the two humans decide to flee from them.
Fiend of Fatality is a gestalt that has two personalities represented by shadows of Chara and Asriel. The Chara personality is wrathful and aggressive, blaming Asriel for everything when things go wrong. They are also bitterly misanthropic, feeling that the world would be better if humanity died and that Asriel's weakness was the reason that they were killed, refusing to take fault for their own actions. The Asriel personality is fearful and self-loathing, blaming themselves for their own death and feeling that their weakness and fear was what caused their life to end prematurely. Unlike the previous two Figments who were called out for their awful behavior, Chara owns up to their own behavior causing Asriel's death and comforts the figment; this causes the Chara personality to go silent and allows the Asriel personality to receive closure and finally move on. Once Chara shows the fiend that they understand that some of Asriel's actions are driven by his pain and trauma and that he doesn't need to create a new world due to having already succeeded in taking down the barrier, the fiend feels fulfilled and thanks Chara for putting them to rest.
Entity of Emptiness believes that it knows everything there is to know about the various characters in the Underground and refuses to change their mind. Having already made up it's mind, it believes that it's victory is a foregone conclusion, telling Frisk, Chara and Papyrus that giving up and submitting to Asriel is the only way to redeem themselves. When Chara strikes them, the entity's face lights up with malicious joy because it believes that Chara's kindness is only a front, remarking that people tend to get aggressive when things stop going their way. Ironically, when Frisk and their party decide to stop engaging with them and annoy them by spamming the Spare button every turn, the Entity of Emptiness becomes enraged due to a combination of not wanting to be ignored, and because the party refuse to do anything interesting. Once it reaches it's end, it pleads with Asriel not to kill them because it knows that Asriel will discard it for failing him. After realizing that Asriel will never want or accept them, it spitefully decides to insult it's creator by implying that Asriel's plans are doomed and that he'll always be empty. Unable to accept his emptiness, Asriel kills the Entity, ending the fight.
Doll of Denial claims that it has shown Asriel's true desires. It speaks in rhyme though it tends to drop this speech pattern once angered as shown when Frisk succeeds in cutting the first string holding up Denial's right hand. It claims that Asriel wants to create a world where no one suffers anymore and will never have to suffer again only for it's claims to be gradually exposed that Asriel doesn't really care about the humans and simply wants to control everyone else and have Chara join them of their own free will. It is similar to Possessiveness in that they wish to make Chara happy, but does so in a more sugarcoated, disingenuous way by trying to show them an embellished version of their childhood. Much like most of the other Figments, they refuse to actually listen to Chara and gived them only what Asriel thinks Chara wants, blaming Frisk for everything if Chara rejects Asriel's will.
As it's strings become undone, it starts to contradict itself. It tries to claim that Chara is Frisk's puppet, that everyone is being to them and later that Frisk, Chara and Papyrus are only resisting just to make Asriel miserable. Once it's hanging by a single string, it admits that Asriel is empty inside and they tried to be content with the world but have proven unable to do. Once Chara chooses to hear them out, the doll decide to help by sending them to a secret area that Asriel doesn't know about despite risking Asriel's disapproval. Once it agrees to send the trio there, it cuts it's final string and expresses good riddance to their own existance.
Attacks[]
NOTE: None of the attack names are official.
Effigy of Ego[]
- Angel Swarm: Effigy of Ego summons several copies of itself to charge at Frisk, their flight path determined by a red line.
- Shocker Breaker: After a brief warning, the Effigy of Ego calls down rainbow thunderbolts to vertically strike selected locations. In a harder version of the attack, the lightning strikes summon sparks on impact, and become able to horizontally strike either the left or right sides of the battlefield.
- Divine Words: Whispers and prayers from the worshippers appear on one side of the battle box and slide across.
- Ringing Bells: Effigy of Ego will ring two bells. The blue bell's sound waves on the right requires Frisk and Chara to stay still whereas the orange bell's sound waves on the left need to be dodged by moving. At the end of this attack, both bells ring simultaneously.
Pawn of Possessiveness[]
- Eye Spreadshot: Pawn of Possessiveness will fire a spreadshot consisting of several bloodshot eyes that must be dodged.
- Green Claw: Pawn of Possessiveness summons green-colored claws to attempt to turn Chara green. Shortly after being summoned, they attempt to catch the SOUL.
- Green Tears: Pawn of Possessiveness cries several green tears which must be dodged. After the tears fall, they'll merge into a pool of green water that rises upward and must be dodged.
- Heart Locket: Pawn of Possessiveness summons a giant locket that fires several white hearts that must be guarded against.
- Lovebomb: Pawn of Possessiveness calls down a rain of boxed presents with Chara-themed parachutes attached which must be dodged. A green variant of this attack in used late in the fight and is used in tandem with green eye lasers.
- Obscured Needle: Pawn of Possessiveness reduces Frisk's field of vision and fires off several needles that must be guarded against.
- Vine Poke: Pawn of Possessiveness summons 4 hand vines in each of the four cardinal directions. Each hand will try to poke Frisk and must be guarded against. Later on the fight, the hands will cover all 8 cardinal directions instead.
- Gifts and Treasures: The Pawn of Possessiveness summons gifts which fall from the sky to obscure their vision and must be blocked if they come close to the SOUL. At the same time, it summons gifts from the four cardinal directions which can bounce once and strike again after being blocked.
Fiend of Fatality[]
- Bloody Arms: On top of the screen, red, realistic arms come downwards after being shot at. Sometimes mixed with "Eat Lead, Demon!". A later version has red vines appear to make movement more constricted.
- Eat Lead, Demon!: Red crosshairs appear on the screen before hands holding pistols appear and shoot bullets at the areas highlighted by the crosshairs.
- Headshot Tears: When the Fiend is shot in the head at by bullet, teardrops will fall on the command box and separate into smaller droplets.
- No One Will Hurt Ever Again...: The Fiend has eight Steely Knives appear before moving the box from left to right. During this, gunfire, knives, and red arms attack the screen.
- Steely Knives: Red knives are thrown at the command box. They stay after hitting, constricting movement. In some cases, the knives will operate as projectiles in tandem with other attacks.
Entity of Emptiness[]
- Pellet Ring (Mocking): The Entity will spend the pre-fight encasing the SOUL with bullets, but will never actually hit.
- Pellet Assault: A circle of six pellets appear and quickly closes in on the SOUL.
- Heartless Swarm: A swarm of flies will come out of the heart shaped cavity inside the Entity in an unpredictable manner.
- Vine Grab: Vines will appear from the left hand side and quickly attempt to attack the SOUL. Indicated by a red line coming horizontally.
- Falling Real Knives: Knives will rain down from above, indicated by a red line coming vertically.
Doll of Denial[]
- Blue Flames: Blue flames rain down and can be dodged by moving to the bottom of the screen.
- Blue Tears: The final attack used, in which the doll fills up the screen with water made from their tears.
- Blue Trident Barrier: Denial creates a set of tridents to protect their strings from being cut. Every so often, the tridents will jut outward, granting a brief window of vulnerability.
- Chained Heart: The Doll of Denial is surrounded by a large blue heart that protects it while large cups of butter fall downwards.A later variant of this has smiley faces rising from the bottom of the battle box.
- Large Flame: White hands appear and shoot out white flames from various directions.
- Sketch Ball: Several white scribbles come in from all directions.
- Spread Flame: Flames and large cups of butter spread out from one of the Doll's hands before falling downward.
Gallery[]
For images related to the Figments, check out their Gallery.
Trivia[]
- All of the Figments use a style different from the typical pixel art sprites of UNDERTALE, to give them a more unnerving and otherworldly appearance. Both the Effigy of Ego and Entity of Emptiness are depicted with photoshop, the Pawn of Possessiveness and Doll of Denial is depicted as drawings, while the Fiend of Fatality is depicted with watercolours.
- The Entity of Emptiness was the first figment to show that the figments are sentient and aren't just Asriel's puppets.
- The Figments went through a number of different changes during development:
- Previously, The Effigy of Ego was named "the Entity of Ego". The Entity title was later given to the Entity of Emptiness, who had remained without a prefix then.
- The original versions of Denial and Possessiveness had their designs exchanged, and then subsequently were redesigned once more. The original Denial was a flower-like plant with many vines and a singular eye, which are elements that would later be used for the Pawn of Possessiveness.
- While the Figment battles share a similar formula, certain Figments deviate from previously-enstablished trends:
- The Fiend of Fatality is the only Figment who accepts their defeat peacefully, thanking Frisk and Chara for helping them.
- The Entity of Emptiness remains the only Figment who was able to resist their own "fading", and was consequentially the only one to be personally killed by Asriel.
- The Doll of Denial is the only one that decides to help Frisk, Chara and Papyrus after the trio choose to hear it out.