i am who i am

[joseph joestar eng dub voice] you’re not gonna make me stand here like this forever, are you?

BUT WHILE IM ON THE TOPIC I have played undertale A LOT. I’ve gone through the game so many times, looking for every little bit of knowledge or secret info that I thought I missed, and what do you know.

please tell me everyone else saw this fucking thing in the true lab the HEART IN THAT CONTAINER????

* [puts on tinfoil hat]

i’m willing to bet that’s chara’s soul tbh, AND that it’s powering the CORE. Human souls don’t vanish on death right? And we can see from the example in game (SPOILERS: azzie) that absorbed/combined souls don’t shatter when UNcombined/let go/freed/ whatever. They’re free to do whatever, unless contained.

Working hypothesis: Chara’s soul did not disappear when Asriel fell down in the garden. Gaster captured and used Chara’s soul to create and/or power the CORE, where Chara’s DT gave the CORE it’s unusual timeline altering abilities (including the power to erase gaster from existence/memory), and the CORE itself kept Chara’s soul dormant, much like the soul containers you see before the battle with Asgore.

( I say that it was gaster and NOT alphys because though the true log files mention the queen leaving, Alphys doesn’t KNOW Toriel, or recognize her on sight. It would keep character interactions consistent, as well as being fully explained within the game’s current canon. I’m not even going to TRY to get into the theory of “mixed authorship” of the logfiles, even though I personally like that theory, because it’s really complicated and I… dont want to look up sources right now. BASICALLY the theory states that the author of the logfiles up til 8? i think? (And seventeen, of course.) were Gaster’s writing, and that after he was retroactively erased from existence Alphys came in as the royal scientist and had to fill in the blanks of what he was working with, cue her inexperience with DT and its extended/slow acting side affects on monster bodies. ANYWAYS……)

This is also how Chara acts as the narrator/flavor text for Frisk, I think. The CORE filled the underground with light, right? They’re literally with you everywhere you go. Frisk’s Determination- the similarity between their souls- is what “woke” chara up initially, while their connection to the ENTIRE UNDERGROUND is why they can tag along with you through your journey. … And it’s also why they can’t follow you when you leave. Their soul is still trapped in the machine. And it’s why they can instigate a TRUE RESET when nobody else can. 

(additionally, and this could just be me rambling: Chara’s soul powering the CORE could provide reason as to why the former six humans could not RESET or SAVE, where you CAN. Chara’s soul was still dormant at the time of the other humans’ passings, and they could not interfere. I mean, they say they only woke up once YOU fell down, so it’s a pretty solid guess. Follow up: They use YOUR determination to save and reset, giving you the power to change fate. You are able to do this Because Chara is helping you. You’re partners. Even in pacifist. ESPECIALLY in pacifist.)

OH!! Another thing I almost forgot to mention. In Hotland, on the “CORE approach” screen, where you see the core in the distance. The music that plays in the background? It’s the same music that you hear at the end of a genocide run when Chara talks to you. It’s a slowed down, distorted heartbeat.  Might not mean anything, but. :^) It’s pretty unsettling, right? 

Under them?