#unity was kinda the future outcome so thats not just a reading

[sapphia]

sometimes i think about how the harry potter sorting system was about pubescent children being divided into social groups based on often-pretty indefinite traits, and then the story was about how those children were not just fed the prejudices of their parents and of history, but how they often actually found themselves grappling with the narrow definitions of self the houses placed on them and on others around them, and specifically the jarring presentation and diversity and boundary-blurring within those groups, and also how the overall message of the books was one of self-determination and hope that people would gradually grow past those prejudices and hard distinctions

and then somehow the author still became a fucking terf

[askfallenroyalty]

(1/2) I don't care that the story isn't done. The reset itself isn't the point. You had FRISK tell Chara, point blank, to give up on their suicidal family member after like ten minutes. No matter what, that is FUCKED. Honostly, the ending to this story is irrelevant to why I'm upset. I'm sure you'll wrap all this up in a nice little bow at the end of this.

with the heavy subject matter and with my lengthy response, i’m putting this under a read-more.

sigh. ok. i see you’re angry and you have every right to be upset, this topic is very personal to me too. i want to stress that i see that and its fine to react this way, that at the end of the day despite my author intention, you as the reader came away with this. and i’m sorry. i hope with the full picture you will see how this story is intended to be empowering and helpful to those who suffer from depression and sucidal thoughts. this is a story of unity and love. this plot beat doesn’t reflect that theme, and is supposed to be the darkest point of the full story and the wrong they must make right. however! as an uncomplete story, yes! yes its fucked and not cool, its never been intended to be ok. frisk made a mistake.

i feel i have to give context to frisk’s actions but even when i do that, i want to say sorry for how i’ve hurt you and that going forward with the story, i want to make it explically clear what frisk said was wrong. i want to thank you for this critisim, and i take it fully to heart. i hope you’re ok.

alright so in context, this is what happened. undertale the game happens. a year passes, chara true resets. they continue to reset until AFR happens and they lose the power. Chara clings to resets and the past because as a ghost, they had nothing. while frisk loves chara, they can’t really get past their broken trust they have with their sibling for taking a year off of their life. thats fine tho, because chara doesn’t have the power and they’re happy with their new life.

but then chara does get the power back and explains they intend to reset so they can relive the past and have no one ever die again. frisk is mad at this, but chara in the darkworld arc promises not to use the power anymore. things are fine again... but imminently when they leave, chara changes their mind. they ambiguously say goodbye with the intent to use the save power somehow.

when asriel dies, frisk isn’t looking at it as “oh shit, asriel is dead” frisk is looking at this as “since midnight i’ve been told this timeline is a goner so whatever happens is not real, chara betrayed me twice and has fully broken my trust.” they’re furious at this betrayal AND for chara reloading without talking to them. they were partners in the journey underground and great friends! chara betrayed them!

and most importantly frisk is 15. (14 in-universe because of the original true reset, forgot i didn’t make them 13. i’m bad with numbers, not really relevant) they believe chara will true reset (which they ended up doing) and 5 years of their life would be gone as well as, in a sense, killing their siblings! to frisk, they’re seeing this as a trolley problem scenario, not “save asriel” scenario.

they’re a kid who’s had their life ripped from them and betrayed by their best friend, they’re a kid scared for their siblings and family’s lives and that context is important to how they reacted. yes!!! its messed up! but they’re not reacting in the sense of “give up on asriel” but “are we going to be stuck in a magic loop and are you going to erase the future completely” and once chara explained they were fine with not resetting and only intended to reload, frisk backed off!!! frisk was fine!! with that!

they accepted chara felt the solution was a magic one -but as i mentioned, this isn’t the right answer nor is it the final answer. as far as i’m concerned, this is their 4th attempt to saving asriel and there CAN be more. when i say its not over- i frickin mean it! the story deals with magic and the whole scenario is built on magic. the outcome will be grounded in reality and how to better handle the situation but ultimately the context isn’t as black and white as you painted it.

frisk and chara are scared and in way over their heads with this. chara and frisk have been crying, having damn breakdowns and worried as hell for their families and as a kid, frisk is more worried about their immediate family than the basically-stranger who’s always been chara’s brother first. is it still wrong? yes. should i have made this more clear in the text and hopefully avoided this? yes! i’m not sure what exactly i could of done better but I fully intend to make this more clear.

i’m just... kinda at a loss right now of what to say. i fundamently believe the full story that i have in my head tackles this topic with nuance and showing both characters are at fault (chara for the lack of communication and hot-headed-ness.) and i hope with time it’ll fix this issue. but for now, it doesn’t change this story is upsetting as an unfinished piece. i’m fine with discussing this further with you anon but i also fully understand if you’re angry and don’t wish to engage further. regardless, i wish you the best.