Once again, people are forcing the Pope to like Undertale
An Italian circus has played a version of Sans' Undertale theme for the Pope. Yes, really.
In our first 'yes, this is totally normal' story of 2022, we are absolutely thrilled to report that a circus just performed Undertale's Megalovania track in an audience with Pope Francis. yes, you read that right.
Some context: yesterday, ol' Pontifex hosted the Italian circus, Rony Roller, as part of the general audience he takes part in every week. As you can see in the Youtube video embedded below – taken from the Vatican News channel – the circus ended on a rousing performance of Sans' theme (also known as Megolovania).You can catch the whole audience segment below, but the most interesting bit (including fire juggling and Undertale) begins at 53:28. If you want to skip right to Megolovania, head to 1:04:40.
This isn't the first time the circus troupe has performed for His Holiness, either (though it is the first time videogame music has made an appearance during the audience). The troupe also played for Pope Benedict XVI way back in 2006 and more recently they did a show for Francis in 2017. Whether they'll be invited back after his sour face during this performance remains to be seen.
So does Pope Francis like one of Undertale's most well-known tracks? Well, after the show was over, he said performances like that "[put] us in touch with beauty, which always brings us happiness", before concluding "beauty is a way to find the lord" (thanks, TheGamer). So... is he saying you can fing God through Undertale? Sorry to paraphrase, but yes! He is!
Oddly enough, this isn't the first time there's been a Pope x Undertale mash-up: way back in 2016, Youtuber MatPat was invited to a Vatican summit discussing how the internet "brings people together" (hmm). MatPat was told he should arrive with a gift for Pope Francis... so MatPat took a copy of Undertale for him.
Why? Well, the Pope proclaimed 2016 the "year of mercy for the Catholic church, a period celebrating forgiveness and compassion when one could otherwise choose to harm a person" and MatPat says the abiding theme in Undertale is mercy. There you go.
What'll be the next Pope x Undertale fated meeting? Maybe he'll cameo in Toby Fox's next game, brinigng the whole relationship between the Vatican and the game to a wonderful, holy full circle.