#undertale meta

My unpopular opinion with Chara is that aside from surface level aspects, they don’t share much with Noelle and I feel people overplay the overlaps the two have.

I do get what many mean with the two being heavily involved with the weird/genocide route and how feeling powerful/having a sense of control motivates the two but the two are clearly very different characters and how they behave are different.

On Noelle’s end, she has nothing against killing the darkners because she had a smile on her face until the final enemy is Berdly where she hesitates and she is afraid of “Kris” due to how theyre out of character.

She even shows shes affected by the events of the weird route and is relieved when she thinks it’s a bad dream.

Chara on the other hand has shown zero hesitation in the genocide route and they are the one who jumps in the opportunity and encourages Frisk to keep going on because it benefits them personally. They even join in on their own accord as early as the ruins without anyones command. (For the record, I am not saying Chara controlled Frisk to do all that because Frisk did initiate the route themselves and there is evidence of sadistic enjoyment of the genocide route which will be a post for another day.) Also, Chara with Flowey showed zero mercy and razed him down the ground alongside the fact they can abort the Genocide Route when for example Snowdrake isnt murdered.

No one told Chara what to do and players playing blind have no idea who and how Chara truly is until the Genocide Route is complete.

There is also this in the Japanese version of Undertale where “Since when were you the one in control” is changed a bit to “Since when were you in the position to tell me what to do?”

It isn't really that you should feel empathy for the fictional characters, not exactly.

It's more that, the value in a game is that aspect of its storytelling, the connection you are able to have with the characters & story, and thereby the real human artist underneath.

Toby believes hyperfocusing on numbers and completionism takes away from this. That it flattens a game into something cold, pragmatic, and soulless.

I've decided to remove the section dedicated to Papyrus analysis from my megatheory video script so I can spend more time really focusing on it in it's own video without it looking ridiculous in the runtime of a theory that's already going to be long.

To me, Papyrus is aspirational. When Papyrus chooses to spare you in the no mercy route, it is the same as when you spare Undyne or Asgore. They could kill you, they probably have, but you choose to show kindness because you know they deserve it. In the moment you spare them, you show that you believe they can do better, BE better. Papyrus’ encounter in the no mercy route is a perfect reflection of this. He sees someone who could kill him, who has harmed others, and he still decides that there is good in you. The choice to interpret his decision to spare you as foolish paints a strange self-loathing on you, the player. I do not believe that even with the harm that I caused that I am beyond redemption. I can do better, I can be a better person even now. If you truly believe that Papyrus is foolish to see you as someone who can make better choices, then you inadvertently show that you do not believe yourself to be worth it. You believe you cannot improve. You think it’s foolish for anyone to see the potential for improvement in you. Do you not see how harmful this is? This cartoon skeleton sees more good in you than you do.

it's made pretty obvious in all endings that chara was a misanthrope. that they hated humanity, and went to the mountain to be away from it. monsterkind showed chara compassion and kindness that mankind never had, so they had absolutely no reason to resent monsters the way they did humans. until you, the player, came along, and told them that everything had to die. both monsters and humans, all life had to vanish at your hands. and when you provided no explanation, chara began to believe you. that all life must be exterminated indiscriminately. this reality is beyond saving now. we have to reset everything. wipe the plate clean. together.

As an extension of my idea that the distribution of the human items in Undertale implies the levels of each virtue in Chara, I like to think that Frisk is their direct mirror-image when it comes to the distribution of the virtues.

So where Chara has the least amounts of Patience and Bravery, Frisk has least of Justice and Kindness. It means that they are the most brave and patient and that Integrity and Perseverance is equal in both of them (references to the red soul does emphasis determination and being yourself no matter what).

I like this thought because it makes the actual plot of Undertale not just a quest to show Chara (and Asriel) the right path and save the monsters, but also a quest to show Frisk the strength of kindness and justice (through consistent cooking/friendship with the monsters and being judged/judging what’s right - our choice of Mercy shows both fallen humans the way). 

For Undertale it was Asriel, the child of the royal family. His death resulted in the divorce of the royal family, the king instating the royal order to kill any humans and take their souls, and the determination experiments to resurrect near dead monsters that resulted in Asriel's resurrection as Flowey (the main antagonist of the game) but without a soul. Asriel died and came back wrong (a la Pet Sematary).