Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-27907368-20160428221757

Hi there! After lots of playthroughs and a healthy amount of analysis I believe that I have a comprehensive explanation for the protagonist. I will mostly discuss how the endings indicate the composition of our protagonist - I will only discuss the narrator when it's necessary.

'''I AM LINKING VIDEOS, CHECK YOUR SOUND! <3'''

Split Your Soul: Three Parts of a Whole~

We start every run in a physical body that is shared by the player, Chara's essence and Frisk's essence. The coelescence of these three beings constitues the SOUL - all three entities can contribute determination but cannot function alone during the game. However, the player provides the most determination and has the sole ability to SAVE.

"Determination", or the resolve to change fate. Chara says that they do not want to do this during the genocide ending; they only bring back the world because they want your SOUL. Frisk is only named in the pacifist ending. Near all choices made in this game are made by us.

It's no stretch to say that we, the puppetmasters of the protagonist, have the most determination. We're a lot more physical than pixels, after all!

However, the physical body "rebels" in all routes, giving an indication that we are not working alone. In the genocide route, these movements may be more noticeable, but they are seen in every route.

In the Photoshop Flowey fight, the protagonist takes a step forward to fight Flowey. While Flowey is monologuing pre-Asriel, it is indicated that the protagonist interrupts Flowey to ask "Why he's doing this". ... The narrator for genocide is interesting. After desolating the Ruins, they only smile. This is unlike the protagonist in neutral and pacifist runs who do speak.

Anyway. Let's talk about the Frisk/Chara essences. Frisk is the declared dominant spirit in pacifist - they say their own name to Asriel. However, Chara is still within them after the fight. Let's look at what went down in that sequence.

Asriel Dreemurr (boss fight) - It's me, your best DEEEEEEEEAAAAAUUGUGUHHHHUH!

Alright. So, once Flowey "becomes a god", Asriel appears to us as he was when he was a child. He picks up his head (he may have been crying) and smiles. He then says "Howdy! Chara, are you there? It's me, your best friend." Then, he turns into his boss form and tries to get us to stop fighting him.

What happened here? Well, we know that Chara requires determination and a human soul to be inbdued. And they also love STATs. When Asriel calls for Chara, they come and corrupt him into trying to use force to get us to keep playing. More indication of this is how many 9's the Lost Soul's have in their data STATS - it's no wonder that Chara has sucked the hope right out of them!

Okay, we SAVE our friends. Then, there is one last person to be SAVED - Chara. Asriel smiles up until this point in the battle - then, he starts to cry. We SAVE Chara by reminding them of what they were in life; a beacon of hope to the monsters. Then, they can let go of all the STATS - and hop over to our SOUL because we called for them.

(A total side note here. Recall that the monsters at the end of a neutral route say that Asriel refused to fight the humans while smiling? Asriel doesn't mention smiling in his rendition. They shared control over the body - and Chara was doing the creepy smile while they were being killed.)

After Chara's essence has left Asriel, he begins to cry and then turns back to his old self.

Post Dust-Lust (Genocide) Chara - What Happened To The Happy Ending?

So. Pacifist runs post-genocide are ruined for this reason. Though Chara is a part of Frisk's SOUL no matter what, once they've been awoken in the evil way they will not let you forget. They don't need STATS to overwhelm Frisk.

After our time in the Undertale universe, we relinquish control of the protagonist. Evil Chara overwhelms Frisk once our determination no longer affects the story because Frisk alone cannot stop the psychopathic killer that has been awakened.

On the other hand, Chara will live alongside Frisk in true pacifist endings. Maybe they were confused about humans and monsters when they "died" with Asriel, but they were SAVED by a human and monsters did go free at the end of it all. (and maybe they considered Frisk's friends their own friends, too.)

Flowey's Warning in Pacifist Ending - He Might Not Understand...

This one confused me for a while. After a true pacifist ending, Flowey speaks into the fourth wall and tells Chara to leave Frisk alone and let them have their happy ending. This made no sense to me - I thought Flowey was speaking to the player and calling us Chara for the longest time.

However. I had a good feeling about the SOUL jumping part from before and knew that this had to fit somehow. Then, it dawned on me - we see Flowey and he is talking to us in the first person.

Frisk/Chara returned to the Underground to see him. He believes the only one that would want to "see him suffer" is Chara. Remember that he is a self-depreciating character and that he doesn't really hold Chara in a high esteem when he's Asriel again. However, Flowey cannot understand Frisk/Chara returning if they are doing it in an act of compassion or love.

So, he thinks that Chara dragged Frisk's body down here (like what Chara did to Asriel) to snivel at him or laugh at him or something vaguelly not nice.

For all we know, Frisk/Chara went down there to apologize and be at peace. He tele-flowers before we have a chance to say anything, perhaps because the protagonist is speechless.

'''I WILL POST MORE LATER! (I have a class now!) If you have any speculation or insight, let me know! Thank you for your time! Stay DETERMINED! <3'''

'''Coming up soon: Chara and why their dust lust makes sense! ''' 