#solid theory

lucabicono submitted to nochocolate:

I recently found this blog and got drawn back in to reading theories and speculations, and after reading a few, I noticed a common thread that I never had before, connecting a lot of elements regarding the narrative of Undertale, Chara's behavior and motivations, and the significance of the Goner/Gaster characters: the idea of being forgotten. I'm not sure if anyone else has pointed any of this out, but I wanted to submit it for consideration. I also haven't come up with any theories of my own in a long time, and my knowledge of the inner workings and unique scenarios (fun values, kill count changes, etc.) present in Undertale is elementary at best, so I figured you might be better at piecing this together and seeing if it holds water at all.

First off, the obvious connection to the idea of being forgotten, or rather, the concept of memory. The game itself remembers the actions of the player, even in new games and fresh resets, but it doesn't simply stop with the game. Characters like Sans and Flowey obviously either know about previous playthroughs, or at least have some awareness of them. Even Frisk is implied if not outright stated to have some recollection between runs; Toriel's comment that they look like they've "seen a ghost" if the player kills her and then reloads a previous save, and Frisk outright telling Asgore how many times he's killed them.

Another pretty obvious connection is with the Goner characters, specifically Gaster and his followers. Gaster himself was completely erased, past present and future; forgotten by existence. The only people remaining who know about him (aside from, implicitly, Sans) are characters like the Goner Kid, whose entire spiel is about "a world world where everything is exactly the same...except you don't exist", or essentially "a world that has forgotten you". The Goner Kid also asks for the player to forget about them when bringing them an umbrella.

And there are plenty of other allusions to the idea of being forgotten, and having the world move on without you. For example, the Echo Flower that Flowey speaks into says the following: "She'll find another kid, and instantly forget about you." This also ties into the game’s overall theme of letting go.

Having read the theory on here regarding how Chara's influence is tied to number of kills and how the player isn't necessarily corrupting them, as well as the theory surrounding the use of the “*...” dialogue, I began thinking, what exactly is Chara's motivation? Because just having them be a demon or whatever is boring.

Could Chara be motivated at least partially by a fear of being forgotten?

It would explain their hatred of Toriel during a genocide route, who took in fallen child after fallen child even after their passing. It would explain how they're able to one-shot Mettaton NEO despite his monster soul being protected by his robot body; the fountain having possibly been made in to celebrate Chara's arrival having been altered to instead honor Mettaton. I would explain why Chara makes sure to remind the player of the consequences of the genocide route in a soulless pacifist run. It would explain why, even when the player is on a neutral or true pacifist run and they have no soul of their own and basically no influence, Chara is still Determined to let the player know that they're there through things like flavor text ("You laugh and keep laughing", "All you can do is FIGHT", etc).