User:TheHumanAmbassador/Chara Dreemurr:The Anti-Villain Hypothesis

This is the final thing that I'll be porting over! After this, I'm fresh out of things to port! (Mini-Theory 3 is either going to be left to rot, or it'll be remastered, much like Mini-Theory 1 and Mini-Theory 2 were remastered into my NarraChara proof. It depends on whether the claims I made in said theory actually have merit to them. And as for the very first project I ever did.. Well, it'll be a while, but I do plan on coming back to the questions I posed in there. Though the issue is more complex than I've made it seen in that thread.. So it'll probably be a series. That, or maybe even part of a series on Undertale history. (Not the history of Undertale's development, but in-universe history.)

When this goes on the Undertale wiki, the three missing links will be added.

(Well, I suppose I do still need to finish my port of my rebuttal to Blackfootferret..)

--

Intro=Hello everyone. This is the page where I will explain to you my take on Chara.

"But wait! Didn't you already do that?", you might ask. Well, yes, I did once, but that thread is no longer accurate to my take on Chara. You might also be familiar with this thread. This page is actually a port of this thread, so that it may be updated after Discussions. The old thread, however, will still be used for discussion.

Now, from the title of this page, you probably already have an idea on what my current take on Chara is, but just calling them an anti-villain and leaving it at that really wouldn't do the subject any justice at all!

So to really explain the subject, we need to start from the beginning. And we are going to go through EVERYTHING about Chara. ...Needless to say, this is going to be split into chapters. It's quite a good thing this page has tabs!

That being said..

Introduction:The Premise

As you all probably know, there are two main, popular takes on Chara. On one side, we have the take that Chara is responsible for the Genocide Route, was always bad, and is just plain evil. That without Chara, Frisk would probably not even do a Genocide Run. On the other side, we have the take that Chara did nothing wrong, they push you to do Pacifist, and by killing everyone, you give them LV, and make them evil.

And I'm just going to say it here and now:Neither of them are correct. Just like Flowey and Asgore, Chara has their motivations to do what they did...

But what ARE those motivations? Are they good? Evil? Neither? Both? We're going to be answering that question by exploring the nature of Chara, and their relationship with Frisk throughout this theory, and showing just that.


 * -|Chapter 1=Section 1:Yes, Chara is the Narrator

One thing that both sides get correct is that Chara is the narrator of the game. (Well, there ARE a few on the "Evil Chara" side that don't believe this, but that's a minority as far as I know) I've proven this here, and this is a nice proof of the theory as well.

You can read one or both of those for complete proof, but here's a shortened version:

The narrator isn't all-knowing, they get wrong the flavor of monster candy (non-licorice flavor, but it tastes like licorice), they don't know about the water cactus until after Frisk reads about it, etc. Napstablook responds to the narrator as well, so it's a canon entity. The narrator's not Frisk or the player, because they're surprised at our actions and even guess wrong there (What, you didn't do that?) Due to us receiving Chara's memories on multiple occasions, we know they're with us, and the narration text of Chara's bed suggests this. Not to mention the famous "It's me, Chara" segments..

TL;DR:Chara fits as the narrator, and the other possibilities do not fit as the narrator.

Now that we know this, the rest of the theory will go build off the fact that Chara is the narrator.

Section 2:Is The Player Frisk?

Before we begin, we must clear something up. Both sides of this Chara debate seem to believe that Frisk is a separate character from the player of the game, despite the fact that we control their actions, and even bring this as part of the theory. I have yet to see them actually provide evidence to this claim, besides the fact that cutscenes involving Frisk moving exist (Yes, that is ACTUALLY used as evidence despite these kinds of cutscenes being common in RPGs), and Flowey referring to Frisk in the third person when addressing Chara (come on, they're with us as the narrator, if Flowey talked to Chara, of course we'd still hear him).

Chara asks for "your SOUL", and Frisk's SOUL is given away, so that Chara may possess Frisk in a Soulless Pacifist. Chara was talking to Frisk. Yet, it is YOU who gets jumpscared for refusing to destroy the world, and Chara blames Frisk for what happened (We know it was Frisk because we figured out the SOUL exchange, which was linked to that, was also with Frisk) Therefore, we can make one of two conclusions. The former is that "you" and Frisk must canonically be one and the same. The latter is that Chara was indeed talking to us, the player, both times, and that by "your SOUL", they meant the SOUL we control. However, given this, we must conclude that as we control Frisk's SOUL, we indirectly control Frisk as well. Hence, Frisk's actions are still ours. However, for the sake of the theory, I will remain neutral about which possibility is correct.

Now that all the prerequesites for this theory have been taken into account, we may begin.

Section 3:Chara, Humanity, and Asriel Dreemurr

As has been showed by the game, Chara hated humanity. This is why they climbed the mountain in the first place, to never associate themselves with one of them again. ...It wasn't a very happy reason. They lived a life, seeing human nature at its worst. While people like Asriel believed the world was peaceful, filled with love and compassion, Chara's experiences got them to reach the conclusion that humanity was anything but that. They almost certainly didn't like what happened in the war either. But when they fell, and met the monsters... That was a different story. They met a friend. A REAL friend. And they quickly were adopted into royalty. Chara was shy at first (take the screenshot where they cover themselves with flowers), but quickly opened up to the monsters, seeing their goodness. Based on what the monsters told us, the two became like siblings. The tapes also support this. But, while they had Asriel as a friend, their hatred of humanity didn't go away:It was still as strong as ever. But one fateful day, Chara and Asriel ended up getting buttercups instead of cups of butter. This made Asgore very ill. Chara, however, laughed it off. Why? Well, first, it was a nice pun (butter cups?) And second, laughing events like this off is a real theme in the game. But now, seeing Asgore getting sick from buttercups, Chara finally had an idea on what to do with humanity.. A wonderful, awful idea...


 * -|Chapter 2=And here we have it:The second part of the theory!

Section 4:Scheming a Plan

One thing was known about the monsters:Their ability to take the SOUL of another and gain unfathomable power. Chara reasoned, just like other humans before them, that with enough of these SOULs, a monster could wipe out all of mankind. They also knew that such a combined being could cross the barrier. And with seven, the barrier could be broken, freeing all of the monsters. And Chara already had a friend.. A best friend.. So, if they were to die, using the buttercups that hit Asgore, and have Asriel absorb their SOUL, they could get humanity destroyed. Chara worked out the specifics, and did some research on how SOUL absorption worked. Around this time, they may have discovered the ability to SAVE and LOAD. They eventually deduced that based on the nature of determination, they would have partial control over Asriel, while Asriel would have the other half of control. We know for a FACT that Chara figured this information out one way or another, because of Tape 5 in the True Lab.

"Six, right? we just have to get six... And we'll do it together, right?"-Asriel, Tape 5, True Lab.

So Chara KNEW about the split control, and told Asriel about it (because they're friends, why wouldn't they tell Asriel about that?)

Section 5:Getting It Through with Asriel

So, Chara had a plan! But, that wasn't enough. Having a plan to destroy humanity would be useless if Asriel wasn't willing to go along with said plan. Chara, by being nice, had put on a good impression for humanity, and Asriel was one of the most peaceful monsters in the Underground. Chara knew that as things currently stand, Asriel wouldn't feel willing to just kill all these humans. Chara explained how they hated humanity (not why though), but that wouldn't be enough. So, Chara only told Asriel the first half of the plan:To free all of the monsters. They had a plan to eventually get Asriel to agree to the second half..

Take a note on what exactly goes down in Tape 4. After Chara explains the plan directly after Tape 3, Asriel presumably turns the tape back on, saying he doesn't feel up to it.. Then, he eventually says that he'd never doubt Chara, how they'd be strong and free everyone. Chara's acting as a teacher to Asriel, trying to teach them to become more like them. To be more willing to kill the humans, so that they may be free. Chara knew that Toriel and Asgore wouldn't like this kind of plan, and would try to talk Asriel out of it, and Asriel has a good chance of listening to Toriel and Asgore instead of Chara in said instance, which is why they kept it a secret from them. And so, the plan eventually goes through.

Section 6:When The Humans Attack...

Chara had made a wish.. A wish to see the golden flowers of their home village. This was mainly an excuse to leave to the Surface, but it had another purpose. After all, if that was Chara's only reason, thry could have dropped the body once they reached the Surface. Nobody would suspect a thing, because nobody could see the Surface. But Chara had a reason not to do that. They wanted to show Asriel something. Something about humanity...

They continued to the village with the body, setting out to bury it, right in their home village, where the villagers could see what was going on. Thinking Asriel had killed Chara, they attacked Asriel. All because Asriel was holding the body of Chara, and was at the Surface. This, was a reason why they hated humanity. Asriel got to see for himself. Seeing human nature at its worst, Chara figured that would get him to see them as bad, just as they did, or at least kill those humans in self-defense! But instead, he just stood there, taking blow after blow. Then, he just ran away, back into Ebott, but it was too late. He was dying.. THEY were dying. Asriel was able to explain what happened on his way back to the castle but only hastily and abridged, the monsters never got the full accurate story. And then, when he reached the castle, he died. His dust spread across the garden. And that was it.

Pre-Death Chara:A Conclusion

So, what can we say about Chara before their death from this? Well, they were simply a human who hated humanity, that sought their destruction due to their nature. They were friends with Asriel, and wanted him to join them in this quest, as together, they'd have the power to do this. Then, the monsters would live in peace, without humans. However, destroying all of humanity is quite an extreme thing to do in retaliation, and Chara themselves, and later Pacifist Frisk present evidence that humanity isn't actually all bad. This places pre-death Chara as an anti-villain. And it means they have one MAJOR problem:Their hate. It spreads way too fast, and goes way too far, to the point where their hatred became their primary directive, overcoming even their friendship with the monsters, and any motivations to actually do the right thing. This is going to become important again later, so take note of that.

...But, then, what about what happens next? In the actual game? What about POST-death Chara? THAT will begin in Chapter 3...


 * -|Chapter 3=And here we are! The shift from pre-death Chara to post-death Chara!

Section 7:Now What?

So, how has Chara evolved? Well, there's two ways to look at it. The first is to extrapolate what happened so far, and work from there:Asriel got Chara and himself killed because he didn't want to kill the humans, which, given how easily hate can overtake them, would naturally get Chara to become furious with what Asriel has done. Them lacking a SOUL wouldn't help either. Meanwhile, you've awakened them, willingly or not. So, there's three ways this could go, branching off into five. The hate of Asriel might extend across all of monsterkind, leading Chara to switch sides back to the humans, based on what you did (unlikely since the humans were also responsible for them dying once more), an outcome similar to the one I just described might occur, but Chara now wants BOTH races gone (fairly plausible), and can either see you as someone who was like them, simply see you as someone who shares their goals, or want you dead too.. OR, Chara might attribute Asriel not listening as a fail on their part, seeing as they are human.

We might eliminate the first possibility due to its sheer unlikelyhood, but we're still left with two (that branch into four), and we haven't technically disproven the first yet, so technically, there's still all five.. And we don't want several possibilities, we want to narrow things down to ONE! So it's clear that simply using this method won't work. We'll need to use the second method of looking at it:Analyzing their actions within the game itself.

(Did you note how some of those possibilities hinted at Chara wanting Genocide to happen, and others hinted that maybe they're not so genocidal after all? This is probably why there's such a divide on what Chara's true nature is:At first, the evidence seems to support both takes are true. But, we're going to look deeper to find out what their true nature really is. As further evidence to my hypothesis on the cause of the Chara split, take a look at the last possibility. That implies Chara has grown to hate THEMSELVES, which is a very common point of view the CDS takes. Now, take a look at the second possibility. Taken out of context, sounds a lot like a genocidal maniac who just want to kill everything, right? Taken IN context, you get something like nochocolate's take. We get the exact split that we can observe within the fandom.)

Section 8:The Narration has the Answer

Now, analyzing their actions within the game itself at first may seem quite hard to do. I mean, we only ever see them physically at the end of the Genocide Route after all! But, if you recall the fact that Chara is also the narrator, you'll see there is indeed a LOT we can learn about Chara throughout the events of the game. We just need to analyze the narration, with the knolwedge that Chara is the one acting as the narrator.

As early as the Dummy fight, we can notice the narration joking around about the dummy. Knowing their relationship with Toriel, this makes sense. However, that doesn't really give us much information. It doesn't matter what their point of view about Toriel is now, they're going to remain similar to Toriel in this kind of way out of habit for a little while. Though really, the actual KINDS of jokes hint more at a relation with Asriel. But all that gives us is that they were friends. Which we already know.

Our first useful piece of information comes from the narration of the original Froggit fight. The narration originally states that the Froggit attacks you, but the Froggit hasn't even made their first move yet, and thus, didn't actually attack. Chara couldn't have known the monsters' aggressiveness against humans, because that didn't begin until AFTER their death, so that means one of three things must be the case.

1:Chara HAS grown to hate the monsters after all, to the point where they presume that such an encounter was aggressive, and thus, warn Frisk about it, to kill such a monster.

2:Chara is attempting to trick Frisk into thinking they're in danger when for all Chara knows, there is no danger. This would clearly be to try to get Frisk to kill the Froggit:

3:The Froggit DID show a sign of being aggressive in some way. If this is true, that suggests the monsters aren't as peaceful as they might want you to believe.

No matter which one of these are true, it's apparent that Chara's love for the monsters, if they have any, isn't all that strong anymore once the encounter happens, and that's pretty early on, before you even choose a route. Whether this encounter is what lead to such a conclusion, or Asriel betraying them as the death occurred is currently unknown. It's also unknown whether or not there is any real malice behind Chara's actions. But further analysis should help narrow things down.