#flowey had no way to cope with it and created a hell of his own making instead

[ophanstears]

i could explain why anyone that says "flowey cant feel (positive emotions) because he doesnt have a soul" is wrong but i dont feel like it. all you need to know that as a fellow trauma survivor he is my puppet to project onto whether he likes it or not

read the tags for more i suppose

[ramblings-of-a-mad-cat]

As an Undertale fan, what are your thoughts on Chara?

(Rubbing hands together) I have. A lot to say about this.

Chara is such a fascinating and sympathetic figure in the story. In some ways, I even hesitate to call them a character (even though I know their name is a play on the word) because they are only ever alluded to in the story and have no spoken lines, barring a very psychedelic scene at the end of No-Mercy that may or may not have even been them, it was rather ambiguous. Their presence is definitely felt throughout the story, however. You can see them, just as you see Asriel, in the other characters. The haunted look in the eyes of their parents. Not to mention, the plot could not have happened in the way it did without Chara’s fall. I’ve said before that the story begins and ends with Asriel, and it does...but the same could be said of Chara. 

Good or Evil?

The main question people have when it comes to this character is how involved they are with the events that occur, and what was their true nature? Were they a disturbed, evil child? Hell bent on slaughtering humanity and later the monsters? Were they just using Asriel? Or...was Chara a victim? An innocent child who wanted to do the right thing and died to save the society that rescued them? There’s no arguing that Chara was a saint - Asriel himself admits by the end of Pacifist that they were not the greatest person. But there’s a difference between being a snarky, traumatized hero, and being a hateful, wicked villain. I would say from the start that I question the validity of calling any child “evil.” On the other hand, Asriel did some pretty messed up things as Flowey, and it’s universally accepted that whoever was driving the No-Mercy Route, be it Frisk or Chara, was making evil decisions. There are also those who would point to you, the player, for making those choices...but for the sake of the fourth wall, I’m not to discount those interpretations. I want to talk about the characters, not the “anomaly.” 

Here’s the thing. If Chara is responsible for the No-Mercy Route, if we follow the theory that they possessed Frisk, and that by the end they were in complete control - which is supported by a lot of the end-game red text - well, then to be entirely fair, we also have to credit them for the Pacifist Ending. If Chara was somehow reincarnated in Frisk, then that was true in every timeline, surely. We can’t condemn Chara and make them shoulder the blame for No-Mercy, while also declining to give them credit for the golden ending. Hell, Asriel has canonically taken the No-Mercy Route several times, by his own admission - I swear, everyone forgets that. If we don’t demonize Asriel for this, it seems wrong to do the same thing to Chara, even if No-Mercy was entirely their fault. 

“I should have laughed it off, like you did.” 

There is also some evidence that perhaps Chara wasn’t a very nice kid even before the Undertale story begins. People have suggested that they intentionally tried to kill Asgore, for example, with the Buttercup incident. However, I think people are forgetting that that was a joint effort. Asriel and Chara were both involved in making that pie, and we have no way of knowing which of them made the mistake. Yes, Chara did laugh about it later, but it’s not unheard of for people to laugh in horrifying situations, simply to cope with it. Sirius Black from Harry Potter was said to laugh when he was arrested for facilitating the murder of his best friends. Spoiler alert, he was innocent. Chara is a kid, and Asgore didn’t actually die. I don’t think we should assume that they intended to do this, or that they took pleasure from his pain. 

The day Asriel died.

Chara’s gambit, the one that ultimately got Asriel killed and reborn as Flowey, is pretty ambiguous. First and foremost, we cannot blame Chara for what happened to Asriel. They wanted to fight back against the humans. Asriel resisted doing this. It seems very clear that whatever else was going on, Chara did not plan for Asriel to die, and they tried to stop it from happening. Otherwise, there are hints that they wanted this confrontation to happen, and that maybe that was why they took their body with them to the surface. Here’s the thing - killing humans was already part of the plan. It wasn’t like they were tricking Asriel into that - both of them knew they’d have to claim some human souls to break the barrier. Chara may have calculated that the humans would assume Asriel killed them and attack as a result - but that would simply be triggering the altercation that they and Asriel had planned on creating anyway. 

The “Charrator” Theory

After this happened, Asriel was reborn as Flowey...and Chara is hinted to have became Frisk’s unseen companion. Perhaps Frisk’s fall disturbed their rest, since Frisk did land on top of the golden flowerbed that Chara is implied to have been buried under. There’s a major theory that the narrator of all the game’s text is actually Chara’s spirit. It would explain how the narration knows things that Frisk would have no way of knowing, like when you can “check” monsters in battle. Plus, the somewhat snarky sense of humor in the narration, yet still overall hopeful personality...well, it lines up a lot without how Chara was suggested to behave. There are other moments too, like how shocked the narrator seems when Asriel calls Frisk, addressing them as Chara. Or how the narrator falls silent when Asriel breaks down during the end of his fight. They also push Frisk to save him. Not to mention this is hinted far more in the No-Mercy path. It’s made blatant with lines like “The date I came here.” and “Still has that sweater.” and even “My bed.” So, yeah, I tend to subscribe to this theory a lot. 

What happened to Chara? 

My belief is that Chara was confused and traumatized and not at all sure what happened when they were first reborn in Frisk - either because they were haunting them, or because they were reincarnated. Hell, that might have been why Frisk climbed Mt. Ebbot. - In a way very similar to how Flowey was confused and scared when he first resurrected. I believe Frisk’s actions help Chara rediscover who they are. If Asriel can be forgiven for having to re-learn things like compassion after something as traumatizing as being murdered, can’t Chara be given the same patience? They died twice. Can’t it be assumed that they might need the same rehabilitation? I believe Chara learns from Frisk’s choices. One theory I’ve seen that I really like, is that they felt embittered toward Asriel for completely screwing the plan, by refusing to fight back. Hence Flowey asking “No hard feelings about back then, right?” Hence why Chara, after being on the No-Mercy Route for that long, might feel so much contempt for him that they slash him half a dozen times like we see. By completing Pacifist, Frisk teaches Chara what Asriel already knew - that any situation can be resolved peacefully, and thus refusing to fight back was the right choice. At which point, Chara is able to properly move on and rest. Having grown to the point of understanding that their hatred of humanity was not healthy. 

That’s another thing, we never find out why Chara hated humanity so strongly. The same way we never find out why Frisk climbed Mt. Ebbot. It’s left to mystery. There are plenty of reasons it could be true. It could be as simple as them being infuriated at what humanity did to the monsters. Or maybe it suggests something worse, like abuse or neglect. Chara tripped, so we know it wasn’t a suicide attempt, but...I mean, what were they planning? The actual fall was an accident, but were they going to jump anyway? That’s the thing. Chara is jaded. They recognize the evil in the world and it makes them pessimistic. They hate humanity and thus they hate them-self, most likely. Ever notice how Chara’s plan to break the barrier results in their human body dying, and them living on as a Monster instead? Maybe it was coincidental, but I can’t imagine they minded. Still, they were willing to die to bring freedom to the Monsters, and they seemed to live in harmony with them for...well, it had to be at least a couple of years. 

TL;DR: I’m a Chara fan. A major fan, actually. I find them fascinating and I don’t blame them at all for what happens in No-Mercy. I also love the Charrator Theory. Any head-canon is valid, but I really don’t vibe with the idea that Chara is a “demon” child.