#[ ordinary deviation from external reality | first fallen human ]

[cruximpetus]

I will point out one thing: It was already know that monsters could absorb human souls. That's why the humans attacked them to begin with, I imagine it happened at some point in the past, somehow. So Chara wasn't taking THAT much of a risk, and it's generally accepted that Chara killed himself so Asriel would absorb his soul so they could go to the surface and absorb more souls. Just to clarify. I know it's your portrayal and don't expect that to change, but still. I'm Undertale trash.

But that doesn’t change the point?Even going back to Waterfall and rereading - yes, the humans started the war because monsters could absorb human souls - and, yes, going back to the tapes, it was Chara’s plan for Asriel to absorb their soul and go to the surface to get six more souls to break the barrier (and who would have brought that up with them, I wonder) - there’s still a risk involved.  There’s still a possibility that Asriel could not absorb a soul (due to his age) or that he would not have been able to absorb Chara’s soul.Beyond that, there’s no assurance that Chara, having had their soul absorbed, would have retained any knowledge or semblance of their being.  We know that, because we know that Asriel and Chara fought for control of their fused self, but Chara probably didn’t know that (there’s nothing about this in the writing in Waterfall or anything to suggest it until we learn it from Asriel – or until the Neutral Ending with Flowey where the souls he absorbed rebelled).  In which case, Chara would be committing suicide under the assumption that they would lose themselves in the absorbtion - which would be death of consciousness.  Still a death.Even more to the point, suicide by eating buttercups is an extremely painful process.  (I personally have not looked up how this works due to…issues, but I’ve read it brought up in conversations on Chara - I think on tvtropes was where it was particularly mentioned, although I don’t quite remember.)  For someone who had access to other potential forms of killing themselves why would Chara choose this one (although I do have other thoughts on this) unless it was something they wanted - to deal with that pain in themselves.  We can’t even say that they didn’t know how painful it would be because they watched what happened with Asgore.  Even if they believed without a shadow of a doubt that they wouldn’t die, it’s still a severe case of self-harm at its best (which keeps with the depression theory).

[cruximpetus]

On Chara, Asgore, and Goat Family Dynamics:      This is going to be a long post, so head under the read more for the headcanon.

     First off, we have to start way before Chara even arrived - to the war between monsters and humans.  We know from the signs in Waterfall that the humans started the war because monsters could absorb human souls (which begs the question how did they find out?  If a monster can only absorb a human soul after the human has died (because human souls persist after death), then they would have needed to be around when that happened - whether as a cause of death or because they were simply friends enough with the human for it to happen.  I’d prefer it was the latter, but I think it was more likely to be the former - not necessarily an intentional cause of death, but certainly that the human and the monster weren’t on friendly terms, thus leading the human populace to have more reason to panic than to see it as a way to live longer after death -- but that’s another thing entirely.  To be honest, I think if it’d been friendly circumstances, the monster-human fusion likely wouldn’t have said anything if they didn’t have to do so-- but, then, this assumes that not all such fusions cause a physical appearance change as the Chara-Asriel fusion did, which I think is based more on the souls of the two involved and their age.  Asgore, for instance, absorbing one human soul would likely not have that vast amount of change.  But that is beside the point and I’m getting carried away), despite the fact that humans were, as a result of their souls naturally stronger than monsters.  We do not know how long the war went on, and we don’t know who was in charge during the war.  Signs point to Asgore (due to his crappy naming scheme) or an ancestor of his (because crappy naming can be passed down in genetics, I have no doubt).  Either way, Asgore or a direct ancestor led the monsters during the war.  For ease of discussion (and because canon more clearly points to it), let’s say Asgore led the monsters during the war between monsters and humans.      Now, why does this matter?  What does this have to do with later dynamics?      Humans started the war.  Asgore led the monsters during the fight - which means they fought back.  Humans are naturally stronger - which means they could easily have killed the monsters, his people.  Asgore continued to pursue peace (even within the context of war), because that is more his personality, but humans refused peaceful terms - which meant more fighting and more monsters dying because humans were afraid, humans were fighting, and humans weren’t allowing for any sort of reconciliation.  We have seen how Asgore reacted to his son’s death and the pressure of his people; it is likely that under this pressure he cowed and ordered the monsters to fight.  And every time a human died, their soul was absorbed, which made the humans more afraid because look at how much damage that monster can do - but we also know from the canon lore that when monsters don’t want to fight, their whole physicality reacts to it.  A human soul can fight the monster who absorbed it (as noted with Chara but even more noticeable in how the six human souls dealt with Flowey), can make them weaker, so even such a powerful fusion, in that circumstance, would likely have fallen to the humans.      And when they won (after the loss on the monster’s side was too great to continue), humans sealed the monsters into the Underground, where they would have no hope of getting out ever again.      No leader - even a monster leader as completely capable of love and compassion (since that is, after all, what monster souls are made of) as Asgore is - would, after that, be able to look on a human and feel anything but conflicting emotions for them.  Perhaps before the war, it would have been nothing but love, but after?  After humans decimated his people?  After they were forced to fight?  After the humans locked them away?  Maybe that part of him was still there, but there had to have also been some sense of despair, some sense of anger, frustration - hatred is a strong word when we’re talking about Asgore, but in this context, it makes sense.  Certainly his first reaction would have been a negative one instead of a positive one.      This leads us to Chara.  We know from canon that they are the first fallen human - the first human to fall into the Underground after that great war.  Asgore’s initial feelings towards them could not have been good.  We know that Asriel found them first, and I tentatively headcanon that Asriel was born in the Underground, sometime after the war - which would mean that he hadn’t seen a human before.  He had probably grown up with the stories, but he didn’t have that same lingering...hesitancy, anger, negative feelings that Asgore would have (likely because he is Toriel’s son  as well, and her first instinct with human children is to mother them the way she would any abandoned child.  Her reaction to a human adult falling is debatable, but to her, a child is a child is a child, and she will mom the heck out of them and protect them).  It is even possible that Asriel didn’t know that Chara was a human until Asgore said something about it, may have just thought they were another sort of monster they hadn’t met before (less likely, but possible).  Either way, Asriel struck up a friendship with Chara before Asgore met them.  Given all of the above, Asgore’s reaction was not necessarily a good one - likely wasn’t - but even if he tried to fight that off to be a good adoptive parent he does not want to adopt a human child Toriel and he does not like that their child is associating with a human but Asgore is a pushover and fine, fine, let the human live with us, they don’t seem so bad for a human, I suppose we will get along just fine and I will do my best - Chara grew up in an abusive household (my headcanon, not necessarily canon) and would know that something was off.  They don’t necessarily know what love looks like from a parental figure, not until they learn it from Toriel, but they know what disgust and anger and a lot of negative emotions looks like.  And maybe he doesn’t hate them entirely, but those negative feelings towards humans in general are there, and Chara can feel that and feels that directed towards them.  So, from Chara, at least, there’s that instinctive wariness of Asgore - not because he dislikes them specifically, necessarily, but because he is wary of them, as a human, and even if that slowly fades away, there’s still a part of Chara that is scared of Asgore and identifies him as a threat.  From an abusive household standpoint.      And that’s the problem with Chara/Asgore - they don’t dislike each other specifically but they see in each other a lot of negative associations they have with other people in their past.  And no matter how hard Chara might try to get Asgore to like them, they do it because they’re afraid that he hates them (even if he doesn’t hate them), and no matter how much Asgore might like Chara, it’s still a hurdle because humans are bad.  (Toriel would say not all humans, but Asgore doesn’t necessarily believe that is the case.  He saw the war.  He led during the war.  He watched what humans did.  Toriel might forgive readily unless it’s personal, but from what we’ve seen Asgore does not - not when it comes to leading his people.  His people come first, regardless of what he personally might feel.  A human is a threat.  Regardless.)      I think this is why Asgore constantly mentions that Chara is the future of monsters and humans.  From what he has seen, Chara does not seem to be as monstrous horrible as other humans did.  He sees the way they interact with Asriel (besties ftw!) and they see the way Toriel dotes on them and how that makes them shine, and Asgore likes to push hope, so he’s saying - look, here’s hope.  Here’s hope that maybe humans and monsters can get along.  But for Chara, that’s an additional pressure, that’s something they have to live up to, and since they already suffer from suicidal ideation (and at least one previous attempt) and likely have a history of being abused when they don’t live up to a parent’s expectations, that instinctive fear is still there.  They feel they have to live up to that.  They feel they have to earn his love (and rightly so, although they don’t know they probably already earned it).  Further - it’s likely that Asgore has to use that phrase to get his people who have just come out of a war with the humans and many of them still remember it to accept that their king and queen have just adopted a human child.      Bitter is the word I’m looking for.      Inevitably, this comes to a head with the accidental buttercup butterscotch pie.  This looks like a murder attempt and Chara laughs.  It’s a nervous laugh, it’s an I tried to do something nice because I feel like you don’t really love me and I want your approval so much and I fucked it up and now you’re going to hate me more than you already do and for once in my life it felt like I had something good and I just fucked it up, and it’s possible that Toriel understands it was an honest mistake, and Asgore likely understands it’s an honest mistake (even if he has his doubts because, hey, human), but that doesn’t mean that Chara isn’t still beating themselves up over it.  (I also think it’s likely that they told the monster populace that Asgore was just sick because that would not have looked good on Chara.)      And that’s when Chara comes up with their plan.      If they die, they can live up to what Asgore has constantly told them they are meant to do (be the future of humans and monsters).  Asriel can absorb their soul (hopefully) and go take out a few humans (they can give him descriptions of their parents, their family, who are horrible, Asriel, their deaths aren’t so bad) so that monsters can go free.  Because monsters have treated them better than humans ever did.  And, yeah, they die in the process, but that’s okay, isn’t it?  They’ll have done something nice for their family and made up for almost accidentally killing Asgore.  And they wanted to die anyway, so that works out for them.  At least they had something good for a little while first.      (And then they don’t die when Asriel absorbs them and then Asriel refuses to kill anyone and then they actually die because Asriel refused to do anything and now Asriel is dead, too and then, fuck this, everyone deserves to die because if my best friend can’t do this, if he chooses the people he knows hurt me over himself, his family, over me, then fuck it all.  And then they’re soulless, which really makes everything that much worse.  Bitterness, my dear friends, is the word.)

[cruximpetus]

Let me start these headcanon by saying first and foremost:           Chara suffers from major depressive disorder AND is extremely suicidal. I take this from two specific events in their lifetime, which I will discuss below.  If either of these things are triggering for you, please, don’t read further.

Now, I will acknowledge that this interpretation is likely not new by any stretch of the imagination, but it is canon to my portrayal.  The main events I use are as follows: 1) the climbing of Mt. Ebott and 2) the devouring of the buttercups.  (The second of these will be hopefully discussed further in another post.)

1) The Climbing of Mt. Ebott

Asriel mentions, post-True Pacifist ending, that the reason Chara had for coming to Mt. Ebott was not a happy one.  We know that Chara had a strong dislike for humanity - I typically headcanon this as a result of their gender identity and the bullying they received, as well as physical abuse from their parents - and it’s brought up during the game, the question of why someone would climb a mountain from which no one ever returned (or under which monsters might be rumored to live).  Now, yes, you could say that Chara was trying to get to the monsters to lead to a revolution against the humans (which, you know, does fit in with the general Chara is evil and wants to kill everyone theory, but not within how I plan to portray them), but this is not the route I choose. Instead, I believe Chara climbed Mt. Ebott in an attempt at suicide.

No one ever came back from the mountain, so they were intentionally going somewhere with the hopes that they would end up in a place from which they could never return,  There were rumors of monsters under the mountain (in my opinion - this is not directly stated in canon), which likely contained commentary on the monsters’ war with the humans (and just as likely highlighted monsters destroying and killing humans) - so, there would be the hope that they might encounter a monster and be killed.  And third, they didn’t land where Frisk did - instead of landing somewhere in the Ruins, they landed in the garbage dump, a place where some of the human junk ended up.  Now, most dumps are not terrifying or deadly places, but with all of the mechanical equipment, they might be (I’m thinking of the garbage dump in The Brave Little Toaster, if that rings any bells).

So - first showing of being suicidal, of wanting themselves to be dead.

2) The Devouring of the Buttercups

This does play into my headcanon about feeding Asgore buttercups and how that was not intentional, but that’s another...post that hasn’t happened yet.  Let’s just put it this way - despite possible thoughts to the opposite, living with Goat Family was not necessarily the best arrangement.  It was certainly better than where they lived before, and there was certainly a lot more love in the mix, but there were...problems, too, ones that Chara thought were a result of them.  Again, I plan to elaborate on this in a separate headcanon.

Regardless, Chara suffered from a mental disorder and previously showed an aptitude for suicidal ideation and attempt.  It would make sense that, in a desperate moment, when it seemed like they were only making things worse for the family they loved most, that they would attempt suicide again. Because here’s the thing-- Chara was taking a huge risk by eating the buttercups.  There were only theories at that point of the fusion of monster and human souls, legends like we see in the game proper (even after what happened with Asriel and Chara), so although there was a possibility that it would work, there was also a huge possibility that it wouldn’t.  And the thing of that is that if Chara died and it hadn’t worked, they would still be dead.  We can look at it from the perspective of well, yeah, of course that worked, but Chara did not know that.  Not for certain.  And that’s a lot to chance on something that they did not know.

Which means they would have had to be okay with dying.

I think there was a part of Chara that wanted to be dead, and that their idea worked was icing on top of the cake (because it gave them an option to save the people they cared about most, if Asriel let them).  Either way, they felt they would be helping out Goat Family (and proving themselves to Asgore, which I plan to get to in a different headcanon) - either by freeing everyone or by killing themselves.

[cruximpetus]

In guess that's fair reasoning... However, you're wrong about why Toby choose 'Chara'. It was simply a placeholder name that he decided to just go with. And rosy cheeks can simply be an indicator of youth rather than femininity, and Chara is a child. I guess I'm saying I don't exactly agree, but I can see where you're coming from. Do you have any headcanons on Frisk's gender as well?

Well, as far as Chara’s name, if that’s something Toby has said specifically, then I’d love to see it.  Until then, it’s kind of open to interpretation either way, isn’t it?  But given his naming conventions with Toriel, Sans, Papyrus, Undyne, and Asriel, it makes sense.  (Kind of contrasting with the Dreemur / Murderer thing, though.)And, yeah, rosy cheeks can be an indicator of youth as opposed to femininity, but that’s not a consistent characteristic of the child characters in Undertale.  If that was the case, then Monster Kid, Asriel, and Frisk should all have rosy cheeks and none of them do.  This also kind of reinforces my thoughts there because Chara, in control of their appearance, is specifically characterizing themselves differently than those three - I’d say Asriel, who is characterized as male and uses male pronouns, is probably the best indicator there, even though Chara vs. Frisk is probably the biggest parallel to be drawn.Which leads into Frisk’s gender.

Note that there are minor spoilers for Undertale below - and although I know that you, dear Anon, are probably someone who has played the game, I also know that I have followers who have not.  Part of my commentary below may ruin the experience for them, so the above note and also the read more.

To be honest, Frisk hasn’t sat in my mind the way Chara has.  I haven’t spent as much time thinking on them or their lives or anything like that as I have with Chara, so this is...perhaps less thought out.  Also, there’s less in canon to support anything with Frisk, which again leads to better player immersion (if you have a player character who is characterized as male, this can ostracize a female player, and vice versa - having a gender neutral player character does leave them open to interpretation, and if, as Toby has suggested, we are meant to name the fallen human after ourselves (and on initial playthrough to assume this is the player character), this leads to greater player immersion.  We see ourselves as Frisk (except that, really, we’re meant to be Chara, aren’t we?  but that, too, is open to interpretation), and so Frisk is best written in a gender neutral way).But, brief thoughts in a couple of different ways - first with canon, then with story tropes and tricks of trade.First off, regardless of the player immersion, I do highly suspect that Frisk is more of a pure gender neutral than Chara is - by which I mean that I interpret Chara as being closer to a feminine not that there are...how do I word this.  Frisk does not care about gender as opposed to Chara, who I believe does.  Maybe gender fluid would be a better term, except that I don’t see Frisk as fluidly shifting from one to the other.  Just that they are and that gender is not a concern to them.  This is particularly poignant to me in relation to the armor they pick up throughout the game - they don’t much care whether it belongs to one gender or the other (pink tutu vs. the gun and cowboy hat, for instance); they put it on; they use it.Now, this could also be an age consideration - you could just as easily consider that Frisk is younger than Chara, as younger children do have preferences over clothes and toys but...gender is less a concern.  If that makes sense?  (This detracts, perhaps, from the rosy cheeks argument, though.  If they are an indicator of age, as opposed to gender, then that would imply a Chara who is younger than Frisk.  -shrugs-)Regardless, I don’t see much of anything other than that in canon to support Frisk as one gender or another.  It’s open to interpretation.When I start trying to “gender” Frisk, I’m much more apt to use story tropes and tricks to do that.  What I mean is this: Frisk and Chara are set up very clearly as parallels and foils of each other.  Foils is perhaps a better thing.  They are similar, but (if we assume the True Pacifist Route as true!canon!Frisk and Genocide Route as true!canon!Chara) they are opposites.  Frisk is merciful, Chara is vengeful, Frisk is compassionate, Chara is merciless, Frisk is empathetic, Chara is apathetic.  They are reverses of each other.In this case, since I consider Chara to be more feminine, then I would expect Frisk to be more masculine.  Both gender neutral but on different sides of the neutrality (if we go with your belief that Chara is gender neutral.  But I will say, even in my consideration and interpretation of Chara as transfemale, I still don’t consider Frisk to be transmale.  I don’t think canon supports that in the same way, except if going this parallel/foil route - but, again, left open to interpretation, so, really, this is one of those things where I don’t think there’s a “right” answer).  This is also a nice reversal of stereotypes - if I consider Chara as more feminine and Frisk, as a foil, to be more masculine, they each have the stereotypical personality features of the opposite gender.  Men are stereotypically more aggressive, which is taken by Chara, and women are stereotypically more passive, which is taken by Frisk.  It’s another reversal, which Toby does a lot in the story.That said, these are just thoughts.  I know that there are writers of Frisk and writers of Chara who interpret things differently than I do, and that’s fine by me.  As you said in your first ask, it is left open to interpretation, which gives us a lot of room for variations in our writing, and that’s amazing.  I follow a Frisk that uses female pronouns and I follow a Frisk that uses gender neutral pronouns, and that’s up to them and their writing.  They aren’t given a gender.  Why would I judge someone for interpreting it differently?

[cruximpetus]

Mind if I ask for this supposed 'evidence' in the canon about Chara being a trans female? Because Toby was very careful and quite particular about writing both Frisk and Chara as fairly gender neutral, not really giving hints as to what gender either of them are, so that people could form their own ideas on their gender. So I'm just curious as to what leads your interpretation leads to Chara being a trans female when Toby didn't give any real canon clues.

Well, of course, you can ask, Nonnie!  Feel free to ask, and I will do my best to answer!Now, I will say that this is based purely on my interpretation of the character and what I see in the story proper, and I will be getting into some of my other headcanon on Chara’s previous life (based on what little we know in canon).  All in all, please understand that this post comes with the following trigger warnings: abuse, major depressive disorder, suicide/suicidal ideation, and transphobia.  If any of these will bother you, I would suggest skimming over the first part.

I’m also going to be splitting this explanation up into two parts: 1) why I consider Chara to be trans / how I came to that decision (based on what little we know in canon) and 2) why I specifically consider Chara to be transfemale (based on what little we know in canon).  I feel there is more evidence to support the latter than the former, but the former is an extrapolation on what we are given.That said, let’s begin – under a read more both for comfort (due to the triggering topics) and because this might get a little long.

First - how I came to the conclusion that Chara is trans.Asriel gives us two key pieces of information at the end of the Pacifist Route - first, that Chara hated humanity, and second, that the reason Chara ended up in the underground was not a good one.  My focus is first and foremost on Chara’s hatred of humanity; it is important as a writer to understand why a character is motivated into what they are.  We know, as you have mentioned, that both Chara and Frisk are referred to with gender-neutral pronouns (which I believe is due to player immersion, but that’s an entire other conversation), which suggests that both of them are likely somewhere outside of the typical gender binary.  We also know, from Chara’s commentary in Asgore’s house in the Genocide Route and Frisk’s commentary on the same, that Chara fell into the underground sometime during 201X - so sometime within this decade.And what is one of the trigger topic conversations and battles of this decade (with the exception of race and religion)?  LGBTQIA+ RIGHTS.  We see plenty of people both on and offline getting up in arms over whether or not these rights are acceptable, and we do see hatred on both sides (or, at least, I have).  We have seen gains on the same sex marriage front, but we have also seen losses on the bathroom rights for trans people front.  Given that we can already assume that Frisk and Chara might identify as gender-neutral given the gender-neutral pronouns used for both of them and given the strong emotions associated with that particular battle, it is an easy leap to say that Chara might “hate” humanity based on the rights battles of which they are on the losing side.Now - from the perspective of someone who does identify as gender-neutral (or at least as a demi-girl because gender is a social construct, etc.) - being gender-neutral does not much impact my rights.  I can use the bathroom, etc., because the neutrality does not require me, personally, to need a change.  I’m apathetic to my gender.This cannot be true of Chara.They need a reason to hate humanity, here is one ready made that relies so much more on the circumstances of their humanity, where they live, the social implications - so many things that aren’t just hey, Chara likes to kill people and hates people as a whole and is just a sociopath for the lulz.  (For that matter, I think Chara was a lot different, personality-wise, before their death as opposed to how they are presented in the Genocide Route - which, again, I do believe is supported by canon.  Feel free to ask on that one as well, if you want!  I plan on elaborating on it later regardless.)Therefore, it seemed best to me to work under the assumption that Chara was not gender-neutral but, in fact, trans.  This was further reinforced with Chara’s suicidal ideation - we know of at least two times in canon where Chara might have attempted suicide - first, falling into Mt. Ebott, and second, taking the buttercups which they knew would likely kill them - and although we might argue that the first might not have been a suicide attempt, I strongly headcanon that Chara was abused by their family and bullied at school for their gender identity.  This leads to not just a general hatred of humanity (for rights related reasons) but also to a specific one as well (due to the refusal to understand of everyone around them).Now - I know that there are unfortunate implications in my decisions here.  I do not believe that all or most trans people hate humanity.  In fact, I think if Chara had been given the opportunity to grow up, their anger and bitterness (what was seen by Asriel as “hatred”) would have sharpened itself into a way to fight for social justice and rights without taking it personally, with support and love and people who understand - all of which will be in Chara’s modern verse but cannot be in their canon verse.  Also understand that Chara is a child, pre-early teenage at best, and their emotions are going to be much easier to turn to hate and personal agony.Second - why I specifically consider Chara to be transfemale, having come to the understanding that they are trans.This one I believe is a little bit more supported by canon, and I can think of at least three specific instances where I can see minor (or major) details that, to me, point to Chara being more feminine than masculine - (so, if trans, then transfemale, and two of these by their own choice, as will be seen below).  I do start with my weaker point and then will build to the more important points to me in this section.First, Chara loves chocolate.  Now, I know that guys love chocolate, too, but within the context of narrative and stereotypical gender pointing, women tend to be known as the gender that loves chocolate.  For Chara to explicitly point out in the Genocide Route that Asgore does not have chocolate seems to me to be a minor nudge in the direction that Chara is female.  This is a small detail, but one that is there nevertheless.Second, Chara’s name is a feminine name.  Chara actually comes from the Greek χαρά, which is Greek for joy (which is also why I headcanon that Chara knows a little bit of Greek and also that I prefer their name with a hard K sound at the beginning, but that’s just me).  Even if you go to the root of the name and use the English translation, you have a character named Joy, which is, again, a feminine name.  Out of the various gender-neutral names Toby could have chosen for this character (Alex, Sam, Jamie, Charlie, etc.), he chose this one.  Again, small detail, but one that is extremely relevant to me.  (I also headcanon that Chara chose that name when they fell into the underground, but that’s based on my interpretation and how I view their fall, etc. - stuff that I hope to put in future headcanon posts.)Third, and perhaps most important to me, at the end of the Genocide Route, when Chara appears, they have rosy cheeks, which is typically an indicator of femininity.  Either the rosy cheeks are natural or its makeup, and in both cases those are more seen in female characters as opposed to male ones.  Now, and this is more important, Chara can control their appearance at this point in the story.  We know this is so because within the same scene their eyes turn into black absences and they pull themselves into a jump scare to frighten the player.  Therefore, it must be understood that Chara appears to the player the way they want to appear, and they’ve chosen to appear with more feminine characteristics (especially in contrast with Frisk’s appearance, which is overall much more neutral).  Again, this is a minor detail, but one I think strengthens my position in relation to Chara’s gender.In this way, having come to the conclusion that Chara is trans (more interpretation but one that I believe can be backed up by canon) and that Chara is of the feminine gender (which I believe is more backed by canon than the former), I must come to the conclusion that Chara is transfemale.But, again, this is personal interpretation based on what I see in canon and the choices I make in writing the character.  You are quite correct in saying that Toby went to lengths to make sure that either character can appear as either gender and be left up to the interpretation of the player, but at the same time those minor details do, to me, point to Chara as transfemale.Thanks for asking!

[cruximpetus]

Things I should note right off the bat when it comes to how I will be writing Chara: First and foremost, I do believe that Chara is a transfemale.  To me, there is a lot of evidence in the canon that supports this.  However, because the canon refers to them with the they/them/their pronouns, I will continue to do so in their canon verse (and, yes, I do have headcanon for why they would prefer these pronouns in that verse at that age).  I will not be doing so in Chara’s modern verse, where she prefer the she/her/hers pronouns. Second, I do have very strong headcanon for the relationship dynamics between Asgore, Toriel, Asriel, and Chara.  These can be shifted and changed in threads with writers of those characters, but for the most part, they are fairly firm. Third, I do ship Asriel and Chara.  I believe this can be supported by canon (particularly how Asriel talks about Chara) and should note that I do not see this as incest, although if needed I will tag it as such.  (This does come into play in my modern verse, where I do not have the two of them meeting until college and the adoption of Chara into Asriel’s family is the same way that the family of a best friend or a significant other might adopt their child’s loved one into their family.) Fourth, and perhaps most important for threading purposes, I do not have icons for Chara.  I’m not much of an artist and do not feel comfortable using others’ art to make my icons (unless they’ve given me explicit permission to do so).  Therefore, most of my threads with them will be iconless (except in modern verses, where I do have an FC for her) and my preference will likely be to have them as para threads.  Don’t have to be multi, just that I prefer icons for one-liners, which would prove hard for Chara in their canon verses. Fifth, I do not believe that Chara is their real name, as noted by their page.  I believe the name is one they chose for themselves upon falling into the underground and given the opportunity to name themselves.  However, given that in her modern verse she will have had much more time to think over what her name might be (and will want further distance from her birth name), her name will be Felicity Grace - goes by Felicity, which means happiness, as a connection to Chara, which means joy.