Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-27130793-20160212011843/@comment-27907368-20160411073508

I have written TLDR blurbs at the end of each section - if the blurb is interesting to you, read the paragraph(s) above! Much luv! <3

Perhaps Chara as a narrator has their dark moments that may seem a bit... off. On the whole, I do get a distinct Toriel vibe from the narrator - there are puns, some dry humor and overall a very positive experience in pacifist and neutral.

Looking at the quotes you posted (thank you!), those are adorable - and Chara seems pretty good. There are sobering moments in New Home, but that's to be expected; the narrator offers little to no flavor text when fighting their surrogate family.

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(TLDR; the narrator is much like Toriel in neutral and pacifist - lots of puns and dry humor.)

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However, I do think that they have their definite darker points even in neutral and pacifist. (I am agreeing with you in full and I found more quotes so now I'm interested again. ^^') Notably, telling Toriel about how many times you've killed her (or at least thinking about it), commentary on Snowdrake's mom, laughing off ASGORE getting sick and jokes made to Woshua: ... A little dark, right? However, I am okay with writing off all three as everyone reacting differently to stress. Perhaps Chara laughed in the face of horror because this is what they knew on the Surface. I get the intense feeling that Chara was abused one way or another - look at Snowdrake flavor text if you keep heckling: [http://imgur.com/a/ThTk8 Do you remember when Asriel said that he had been projecting when he was a flower? ]
 * You tell a joke about a kid who ate a pie with their bare hands. [Joke]
 * You tell a joke about two kids who played in a muddy flower garden. [Joke]
 * You tell a joke about a kid who slept in the soil. [Joke]
 * You tell the Snowdrake that no one will ever love them the way they are... | They struggle to make a retort, and slink away utterly crushed... [Heckle #4]

What's to say that Chara wasn't doing the same thing? She is a kid, after all - not that this excuses bad behavior, but it may do a lot to explain it.

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(TLDR; Chara has some dark moments because they are maladapted to coping with stress and are a child)

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Alright, now... on to Chara and Asriel's subarc. There is a lot of information I'd have to know before being sure in a theory - was Chara able to SAVE/RESET? Moreso, the monster history ... things... indicate that human absorbption of a monster SOUL has never happened. This may have greatly deterred Chara from slicing and dicing her family if she had those intentions at all. Which I don't know if she did.

Chara was a little on the manipulative side with Asriel. In theVHS tapes, there are multiple instances where the accompanying dialogue from Chara would sound quite ugly. I will type how I interpretted it and I welcome alternative ideas! Alright, so Chara is determined in her ways and tugs Asriel along for the ride. The problem with this is that Chara knows that Asriel is hesitant and yet still believes he will be able to fulfill his promise. There is a lot of ambiguity in these tapes. Asriel's confession leads me to believe that he thought they were going to ask nicely for some humans to come help the monsters.
 * A: I... I don't like this idea, Chara.
 * C: Are you crying? 
 * A: Wh... what? /  N-no, I'm not.. / ... big kids don't cry.
 * C: Crying never solved anything.
 * A: Yeah, you're right.
 * C: ... Are you scared because you don't trust me?
 * A: No! /  I'd never doubt you, Chara... /  Never!
 * C: Together, we'll be strong and free everyone from the Underground.
 * A: Y... yeah! / We'll be strong! / We'll free everyone!
 * A + C: (some debating occured here)
 * A: I'll go get the flowers.

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 (TLDR; Chara wasn't exactly straight-forward with Asriel about the plan. Asriel never even is told why Chara hates humanity.) 

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Here, we see how Chara maaaay have lied to Asriel or at least distorted the truth. I'm sure they, in part, wanted monsters freed. However, Chara grabbed their human corpse and knew that this would make people attack them. Chara believed that Asriel's intrinstic monster ways of love, mercy and compassion could be overridden if the lives of the both of them were in danger. Chara was wrong.

The genocide ending shows a disturbing parallel to this. Flowey immediately recognizes Chara in the Ruins - from them murdering everything - and welcomes them back, solving puzzles for them along the way and making their lives just a little bit easier in the nightmare that was unfolding.

We know that Flowey holds a reverance for Chara within him even though he no longer feels compassion, love or mercy. What does this say about his relationship with Chara? It didn't solely consist of these traits. Asriel's last memories of Chara were of them attempting to destroy other humans - while Asriel had a SOUL, this was horrific to him. However, Flowey sees the "wisdom" in Chara's practice and ultimately accepts the cornerstone philosophy. Flowey's story (way too many links tonight. T_T) is here. Since I'm going into it.

Flowey gave up on his life because there was no love in it - and because Chara wasn't there. He then follows Chara's lead by committing suicide, or at least trying to. Alright, holy cow. Asriel was so close to Chara that even when he is inable to feel mercy, love or compassion he ''still misses them enough to not want to be without them? ''Those have to be some intense memories. They may also be amplified because Flowey blames himself for both of their deaths.

<p style="line-height:inherit;">Even after Flowey loses much of his moral compass and toys with reality, he holds Chara in high regard. He believes that Chara returned because he was calling for them after who knows how much time - incredibly sad given that he doesn't even hold feelings for his mom and dad anymore. The more I read through the Flowey dialogue, the more this seems like Chara forced themselves into a place in Asriel's life where Asriel was codependant on them. Flowey no longer feels love for Chara - he feels a primal need for them.

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<p style="line-height:inherit;"> (TLDR; There is strong evidence that the relationship between Asriel and Chara transcends the concepts of love, compassion and mercy and therefore may have been abusive in nature.) 

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<p style="line-height:inherit;">Flowey's final wishes are basically finishing what Chara started. However, he seems to forget one thing in particular - CHARA IS MURDERING EVERYBODY. I know it's completely laughable, but Flowey's lines give no indication that he's even considered this. [Check]   [out] [this] [sequence] [of Flowey] - I hate to break it to him, but humanity came knocking a while ago and I'm pretty sure that he knows we're mowing everyone down.

<p style="line-height:inherit;">Ironically, he is eager to help us this time around because he has no compassion, mercy or love and does not feel these things for the other monsters. He does fixate on us, though and admits that all he really wants now is to live on the Surface with Chara. Chara, after all this time, is the only one that relates to him because he perceives that she is the only one that functions without mercy, compassion and love.

<p style="line-height:inherit;">Flowey just wants to be with Chara again, knowing that Chara adored botany in their living days and that Chara would understand him and wouldn't cry over him being a flower.

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<p style="line-height:inherit;"> (TLDR; Flowey's fixation on Chara is tragic. The lack of monster soul traits in both of them makes Flowey perceive that they understand one another.)

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<p style="line-height:inherit;"> He changes his tune on a dime when he is struck with fear - an emotion that he hadn't had in a long time because he did not need to fear death. He then tells Chara to "go back" which I interpretted as "go back to being dead". So, basically, everything is awful this time around. Even after Flowey reveals himself as Asriel (he thinks that Chara didn't recognize him!), he gets turned to mush by, you know, the person he had been waiting for for however many timelines he'd put himself through. Someone who kills everyone has no one that can be their friend by their nature alone.

<p style="line-height:inherit;">[http://i.imgur.com/gxpOvPZ.png Asriel himself notes that the opposite is true, as well. ]

<p style="line-height:inherit;">I guess what I'm saying is - Chara doesn't have a good history on their side. They're not black and white, but they certainly aren't given a good markeup by Asriel himself. I wish we could have a definitive personality of Chara, but I suppose that's the price of having the character represent morality. ^^'