#frisk analysis

We've been thinking about Frisk's personality the wrong way! They're not either merciful or murderous, or flirty or childish. They're all of them at once. Their personality is one of possibly. They aren't one individual option, but choice itself.

They represent something we don't consider a part of their personality as a human, and that's something that makes them *so* human. Because humans aren't a set of choices, but all of those choices combined, and the drive and possibly to make any of them at any given moment.

They're not a blank slate or something you project yourself onto. They're their own character, you just help them choose.

The choices are always there, Frisk always has them. The choices are not ours, they're theirs.

A lot of my headcanons about Frisk are ripoffs of sad Asian films about kids with bad parents. Or Matilda.

Mostly being a lonely child with self-centered, distant parents until some kind, rough-around-the-edges strangers brighten their life.

I feel like the game implies enough that Frisk doesn’t care one way or the other to return home to any family. I tend to interpret that as neglect, and that Frisk just comes and goes as they choose.Like, Frisk is the abandoned quiche. Their parents aren’t always visibly rotten, they’re not physically abusive. But they’re parental failures and don’t do much for their child’s needs and are mostly absent. Frisk is very independent as a result. 

I’m more of a “I’ve got places to go” ending person myself. At least in that I feel like Frisk eagerly wanting Toriel to be “mom” doesn’t add up with wanting to leave the Ruins or get to the surface so badly. In my post-pacifist stories, Frisk still ends up living with Toriel, but continues the tendency to drift around and ditch home.

I think whatever their past, they don’t feel like they have roots, and have a hard time planting new ones. Like, you know in Earthbound how Ness gets homesick for his mom? Frisk has absolutely zero of that. If they feel any homesickness, it’s for a nebulous concept they’ve never actually experienced.

Yeah, in canon he IS pretty neutral to Frisk. That’s like, his defining character trait besides being a goofy weirdo.

The idea though is that that coolness towards Frisk we see in the game is a product of Sans’ situation, his depression, his apathy, his pessimism.

2/2 Chara, on the other hand, has a really clear personality and we're not only knowing a lot about them and their past, they are also commenting on everything we do as Frisk in the game. While I get that it is not made really clear as who we play because the two big endings addressing us either as Chara (pacifist) or Frisk (genocide), I'd rather think we are supposed to be Frisk most of the time.             

The dialogue directly addressing Chara (Flowey’s post-pacifist plea, “It’s me, Chara”) is probably the biggest evidence for it. And Frisk also does do some actions and have facial reactions on their own, not controlled by the player.

It’s possible there’s a mix of who we’re “controlling” at any given time, depending on the route and scenario.

But there’s two basic ways of looking at the main character(s) that I think equally make sense:

You are playing as Frisk influencing Chara. Chara’s essence(?) comes when you call it (name your player). Your bad deeds encourage Chara to take up their old hatred of the world. Your good deeds soothe the soul and allow forgiveness. Chara mentions being confused about why they were brought back. Depending on what you do as Frisk, you show them the reason. In regards to “It’s me, Chara” in a Genocide route, it may be that it’s not Chara speaking to themselves, but rather that you’ve become something that Chara recognizes as themselves, similar to the way Flowey/Asriel calls Frisk “Chara” when that’s what he wants to see.

-or-

You are playing as Chara influencing Frisk. Either Chara learned from their previous mistake or is doubling down on their anger depending on what you pick, and is pushing Frisk in either direction. The “angel or devil on the shoulder” scenario. The flavor text shows a lot of NarraChara evidence (though it IS just a theory and not explicitly canon). So if the flavor text is not Frisk, then it’s reasonable to imagine that making choices in the menu is also not Frisk. Plus, if we’re naming the fallen human, it makes sense that that person is likely the one we’re playing as. (Though IIRC the game is careful not to refer to that as “your name” at any point.) Then, after Frisk has clearly left the picture in a post-pacifist route, “you” still exist as Chara.

I’m a little more in camp A than camp B, personally. There’s a part of me that wonders if you are Frisk in most routes, but Chara in only the Genocide route. But I don’t think I like the idea of there being a switch “from good to bad” that way, since you can always abort at any point. It would go against the game’s moral complexity themes if one character was distinctly the good one, and one the evil one. Both their moralities are completely up to how you decide to play. That’s how I feel, anyway. 

It doesn’t entirely explain why you are addressed differently at each ending though. Why Chara talks to you. Why Flowey calls you Chara. The big problem is we don’t get to see where Flowey figures out that there’s a distinction between Frisk and Chara as the person resetting. Last we saw, Asriel admitted Frisk wasn’t Chara. Then on the next time starting up the game, he knows Chara exists separately from Frisk and is the one triggering the resets, AND can address them directly.

I think it’s more of the idea that “here’s a human that doesn’t hate us and that we didn’t kill! Look, we can be friends!” Asgore probably does the heavy political stuff. Frisk’s just there to keep everyone in the room from screaming when they see Asgore.

I figured Frisk’s biggest role was helping to “translate” human concepts to monsters on their way to the surface. There’s going to be a lot that monsters don’t know about. It’s good for them to have a human that they trust who can say things like “don’t freak out guys but this is what we call thunder and lightning,” “don’t greet humans with magic, that hurts us,” and “this is a toilet.”

I think it’s just to offset the common interpretation of Chara as the perfect little devil. When you’re super bad you plainly get Chara. When you’re super good you plainly get Frisk. And we don’t get much in the way of Frisk’s personality in the game so it’s hard to know what else to do with it.

I’ve seen some different interpretations of Frisk that I’ve really liked. But mostly the “non-angel” Frisks come from stories that... are actually about Frisk? Haha! I think you see “good noodle” Frisk so often because they’re mostly being used as a plot device for one of the other characters (read: Sans). I’m sort of guilty of that too. I haven’t totally figured out what I want to do with Frisk as a character yet.

Pap is really, really hard to get right. He’s so steeped in the game’s brand of humor that I don’t think I’m clever enough to replicate lmao. I’ve only read like, two fics that I thought nailed it.