Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-27905483-20160303005710/@comment-27701762-20160303073018

It certainly is worthwhile to discuss this stuff. Especially if it ends up leading to something. At the very least it gives us an opportunity to think through the rules and mechanics of this fabricated world to try and figure out how everything works.

One thing that is necessary in constructing a solid theory is compiling evidence. Not merely collecting pieces of evidence that support the theory, but all relevant evidence. We need to be careful not to be selective, or we end up finding support for a theory that could very well be disproven by another part of the game.

So in trying to approach the idea of "we are playing using Chara's soul," the evidence in favor stands as thus:

- When the player loses a battle, the soul breaks apart. It would seem that this mechanic causes a problem for saving/loading, as once the soul is broken apart, the character is dead and no longer capable of reverting to an old save.

- The soul we see in the bullet board is the same color as the soul we see in the coffin.

- Upon losing a battle we "hear" Asgore urging Chara not to give up, conversations that Frisk would not be capable of remembering.

But here's the evidence against:

- When first encountering Flowey, who introduces you to the bullet board mechanics, he says the heart is "your" soul, speaking to Frisk.

- There is no indication at any point that Frisk is "using" another soul as a sort of protection.

- Given the nature of the game world and its narrative, human souls cannot exist indefinitely on their own. While human souls can persist for some time, Chara's soul would need to persist for years, perhaps even decades or centuries, which does not seem possible.

- During the Photoshop Flowey fight, Flowey speaks as though there is only one soul for him to attain, bringing him to a total of 7. (If Frisk was "using" Chara's soul, then the total would be 8 instead).

- The mechanism for this process remains unexplained. How can one human "use" another human's soul?

When putting these things together, we are certainly left with questions about what the connection is between Chara and Frisk, how Chara is able to be brought back to life, and so on. But the stronger evidence lies with the claim that the soul we are controlling in the game is Frisk's. The evidence against can be explained by various narrative tools or gameplay mechanics, or even as misunderstandings regarding our very limited knowledge about how saving and loading actually works in this world.

As for Chara's ultimate plan, which can be treated seperately, I think you were initially right that Chara wants the player to complete a post-Genocide True Pacifist playthrough. Chara's desire to kill can be explained as a combination of a general sadism toward other living beings (given their reaction to Asgore's illness and Asriel's statement that Chara wasn't a very good person), and their anger at having his plan foiled by Asriel, a monster. But the Genocide route doesn't solve the desire to kill humanity, so Chara needs a soul that can escape to the surface, as you said.

Anyway, I think I'm starting to ramble. So I'll end just by noting that coming up with a solid theory is difficult. One of the keys (there are a lot of keys) to coming up with a solid theory is just pouring over the evidence again and again. Some theories can be revised and worked through, and some are too filled with holes and need to be abandoned. Coming up with a good theory is less about getting it right the first time, but learning how to eventually get to the point of creating a good theory.