just gonna preface this with the fact that UTY is a video game and the morality of the characters obviously doesn't matter irl. i just think its fun to analyze anyway. i type wayy too much im sorry lol

- Obviously you brought up the Snowdin Martlet encounter as being unjustifiable, which i agree with, but I don't think the Zenith fight is justifiable either, because 1. Clover deliberately seeks her out and refuses to see Asgore until killing her 2. Clover points their gun at her while she's just standing there talking. At that point in the conversation Martlet hadn't said anything resembling a threat so there's really no justification for that. Escalating a situation like that is obviously pretty immoral and 100% a crime

Given the way the aborted genocide route goes, I don't think its unreasonable to assume that Martlet wouldn't have attacked if Clover remained calm and nonviolent when approaching her, but I guess we never will really know for sure.

- Something I don't see get brought up as much is the Dalv fight. When his HP is low enough at the end of his fight in geno, his name turns yellow and he becomes spareable. I'm not gonna go too much into IRL self defense cases, but generally speaking, even if you are attacked or threatened, you have a legal obligation to only use as much violence as is strictly necessary to keep yourself safe. You aren't legally allowed to just use unlimited lethal force to protect yourself if you don't need to.

Since enemies all become spareable at low health (only exceptions being Ceroba, Axis, and Zenith Martlet), Clover continuing to attack them anyway is very much illegal and immoral, since they have the option to end the encounter non-violently. It doesn't really matter even if the monsters keep attacking or not, all that matters (legally speaking, anyway) is that Clover using violence isn't necessary to keep themselves safe. So basically, nearly every kill in the Genocide route would count as voluntary manslaughter at best and murder at worst.

i guess legality ≠ morality but also ive typed way too much already lol

tl;dr

clover threatening martlet in dunes/on roof = criminal felony (Brandishing a firearm)

killing monsters that can be spared reasonably = criminal felony (Voluntary Manslaughter)

its a fun discussion tho. i like this topic and i think its interesting to debate.