Redemption & Peace for Chara

The things I have the most intense feelings about are usually the things that feel unfinished, so it’s no surprise that I have an enormous amount to say about Flowey/Asriel and Spoopy/Chara. (I named the fallen human character Spoopy because the game was a Halloween treat, don’t judge me!)

I played Pacifist Mode the first time through, (or technically the second, whatever guys, the reset option Flowey gives you happens immediately so it doesn’t feel like a significant break in the game. Get off my dick about this.) I went all the way back to the Ruins to talk to Asriel, so this is what I’ve picked up about the story from that and watching playthroughs of other people’s not-so-great endings.

It seems like Chara fell into the Underground “on accident” (though I’m not convinced it was an accident) only to be rescued by Toriel and Asgore. They adopted Chara, and took care of them along side Asriel. Chara was, quietly, an angry child; they hated humanity, they appeared cute while being violent (Dusty Ribbon/Toy Knife combo), and eventually committed suicide.

I say that I don’t think Chara’s fall into Underground was an accident because at Home the fire doesn’t burn, the stove only works by magic (while other stoves can use magic OR work normally), the tools by the fireplace are blunted, Toriel is downright paranoid about taking her eyes off fallen children, and Chara laughed when Asgore was nearly poisoned with buttercups.

I propose that originally Chara’s violent tendencies were self directed. They climbed the mountain that no one ever returned from, found a deep cavern, and jumped to their death. Even if they didn’t specifically jump, they still went out of their way to climb Suicide Mountain ™. Upon surviving, they likely continued having suicidal impulses, which necessitated the entire house being suicide proofed. In Genocide Mode Chara exclaims joyfully over the Real Knife, saying “About time,” a direct parallel to the Toy Knife found at the beginning where they’d have lived. I’d say that Chara had an unhealthy fascination with knives, but was allowed to keep the Toy Knife because they couldn’t hurt themself with it.

If Chara had hurt others with the Toy Knife I’m pretty sure it would have been taken away, but just like the tools, magic fire, and everything else at Home it wasn’t capable of harming a human. In fact, Chara seemed to love monsters, it’s directly said that they killed themself in order to, in their own way, help the monsters achieve their hopes and dreams by giving them a method of breaking the Barrier. So, I don’t think that Chara ever harmed any monsters while alive, though they absolutely intended to cause the murder of at least 6 humans and succeeded in killing themself.

So, why did Chara laugh when Asgore was accidentally poisoned if they weren’t violent toward others? I think it’s because they finally found a possible method of suicide that their monster parents couldn’t thwart easily.

Poisonous flowers.



Only Asriel knew that the “illness” was a case of self poisoning, or about the plan to break the Barrier. Upon being absorbed by Asriel, Chara’s soul was 100% focused on getting to the village and killing 6 humans. This would have had a double effect, freeing the monsters AND taking revenge on the humans Chara hated so much in life. It’s an incredibly contradictory situation, selfless and selfish at once, and one that would be very appealing to an angry, clever child.



But all that fell apart when Asriel refused to go through with the plan, when Asriel proved to lack Determination, and Chara’s soul was left unsatisfied. Again, this is a situation where the wishy-washy middle road is the worst; Asriel neither prevented Chara’s suicide by telling his parents NOR stuck to the plan, likely causing a LOT of anger for Chara who’d already died to put the plan in motion.

My theory is that the reason Chara originally attempted suicide by climbing the mountain, hated humans, and eventually went out of their way to take violent revenge on them with the benefit of helping monsters was because of some kind of trauma/abuse inflicted on them in their human hometown. It is very ironic that Chara was able to climb Suicide Mountain without being stopped, but once the people saw a dead human child in the arms of a monster they suddenly cared very much about Chara’s fate. There was no reason for Chara to get Asriel to carry their body to a human village except for some kind of dramatic revenge attempt. How many young people think, “When I die and they find my body, THEN they’ll be sorry for how they mistreated me.” Chara seems to have been acting on a very complicated version of that impulse, and like in real life, their message was lost/misunderstood in end.

The idea of Chara having been abused or traumatized in some way also meshes well with their inability to simply accept their new, happy, safe life with the Dreemurrs. Not only does that kind of thing not feel real to a heavily traumatized child, it doesn’t feel deserved. So of course Chara latched onto the monsters’ greatest wish, one that involved not only self destruction but getting to take revenge as well, with a hearty dose of self sacrifice on top to make them feel really good about it. Likely the whole thing seemed perfect; all Chara needed was a way to die that Toriel hadn’t prevented and for Asriel to have Determination.

As for why Chara would then go on to revel in the death of monsters and destroy their world? Well, destroying the monster world was merely a stepping stone to getting to destroy the human world at the conclusion of a Soulless Pacifist playthrough. Also, you try being an angry, vengeful spirit for something like 1000 years. The specific reason Chara’s plan didn’t succeed was Asriel’s lack of Determination, so I could easily see them becoming disgusted with that aspect monsters. Their Determination would drive them to do whatever it took to achieve the goal they’d set themself out to achieve before death, ie. revenge against humanity. This is why they assert that you will make a good partner at the end of your first Genocide game, but encourage you to “play a little differently” if you do Genocide mode a second time. They’re not interested in destroying the monster world as much as they are escaping into the human world and running amok.



So, what does this have to do with unfinished feelings about the game? I think a lot of people have addressed the idea that they want to somehow save or at least free Asriel from his living death as Flowey. But I think even that would be incomplete. Talking to Asriel at the end gives you at least SOME closure, but in a Pacifist playthrough you never even get to interact with Chara at ALL. You only hear about them through Asriel, who will obviously have a biased opinion since Chara’s plan got him killed, not to mention the absolutely repugnant nature of the plan in the first place.

I would really like a way for Chara’s restless soul to be interacted with without doing a genocide mode, since all freeing Chara in that situation does is cause the destruction of the monster world, and eventually the human world after playing Soulless Pacifist mode. Thaaat’s not good for anyone, and holds no chance for redemption for Chara.



I’m not a video game developer, but I could see two basic ways of that going down. One way could be for Frisk to give his soul to Asriel in order to bring him back to life, making him the playable character, and then having him interact with Chara somehow and put their soul to rest after coming to understand their side of the story. This would balance well with Genocide Mode; instead of selling your soul to get to play the game again, you give away your soul, giving up the option of playing again as yourself, instead changing the player character and the nature/goal of the game. This would be interesting because it would also assure the Happy Ending, taking away the reset option since Frisk would be perma-dead. I could see this being a whole second game, or at least some serious business DLC.



Another option that would be more like a mini-game could be for Frisk themself to interact with Chara, somehow get their full story out of them, and get them in touch with their humanity. Then perhaps Chara could willingly give their soul to Asriel again, but this time without hanging onto control or hatred, thus achieving peace and saving Asriel. I could see you having to tote Flowey around with you during this adventure, and I think that would be entertaining as all get out. This ending would still leave the dangerous Reset option open, causing a couple of characters some existential distress, but still allow you, the player, to replay the game you bought with your irl money, haha.

Either way, I really hope that eventual patches, DLC, or even a second game comes out to address these two characters, especially Chara (who I will always call Spoopy in my heart.)

(A big thank you to @arquius-ride, @lupadracolis, @interstellarspider​, and @rainbowbarnacle​ for listening to me ramble about this nonsense at length and offering their input.)

