Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-31619784-20170328162322/@comment-27701762-20170328203315

So there's a lot of questions here. I'm not entirely sure they can all be adequately answered, but...

On the first question of who is in control, I've pushed the following theory for a while: the various choices of "Do/Do not" are supposed to represent Frisk making the choice, with the player technically pulling the strings. So when Chara says "Since when were you in control?", they are talking to Frisk, but alluding to the fact that the player is the one who has been manipulating Frisk. Which means that Chara isn't saying that they were actually in control the whole time. This reading at least solves that problem.

However, I'll provide an alternative. Throughout the Genocide Route there are various actions that the protagonist makes without player input, significantly more than in the Neutral/True Pacifist Routes. These movements suggest Chara taking control of Frisk's body and manipulating it. So when Chara is able to take complete control, the question "Since when were you in control?" does not mean that Frisk/the player/the player as Frisk were not doing anything, but should be read as something like "Since when were you in complete control?"

The second question is how can it be "you" (whether Frisk or the player) who destroyed the world, when Chara clearly did it. But in either reading, the point isn't "Frisk/the player literally destroyed the world," but "Frisk/the player began and continued the path that led to the destruction of the world." Sure, Chara is the one who actually delivered the killing blow, but the point is that Frisk/the player bears the responsibility of letting it all happen in the first place.

On the third question of how the world is actually destroyed, LV does indeed lead to more power: whenever LV increases, Frisk's HP, ATK, and DEF also increase (see, for example, the fact that on the Genocide Route Frisk is able to deal absurd amounts of damage to characters). The fact that Chara (sort of taking over Frisk's body at 20 LV) is able to destroy the world is supported by the ever increasing damage numbers delivered to the monsters. The precise mechanics of how it all works are unclear: perhaps LV really only works with humans, which is why Flowey isn't able to exercise as much control; perhaps Flowey doesn't wish to destroy the universe, but could. Beyond that, trying to get into the science of it is essentially pointless, since it is ultimately a fictional universe.

And finally, why go from "committing genocide" to "destroying the world," that leap is from Frisk to Chara: Frisk kills the monsters, Chara takes over, and Chara's desire (after being shown the purpose of their reincarnation) is to destroy the world. We could say that their desire is to destroy all life in the world, but destroying the world would be the swiftest manner of accomplishing that task, so there doesn't really need to be a distinction between the two.