Just finished Undertale and just started working with MMD. Looking up Chara fanart, I've noticed that 99% of it is Genocide Route Chara. I kinda want to start making Pacifist Route Chara stuff just to get more if it out there. Think about it: if Chara is a stand-in for the player, and they've got control over Frisk, this is somebody who convinces Frisk to flirt with monsters, dance with slimes, pose dramatically while fighting a killer robot, etc.. Somebody like that has to be a lot of fun, especially compared to somebody who's only option is "Fight." Plus, there's tons of neat little details all over the game that show Frisk and Chara really care about eachother (reading the mirror says, "It's still you *pause* Frisk...", dropping Chara's locket on their gravesite causes Frisk to lay it down neatly and pet it instead of throwing it away like normal, the fact every game over screen happens when Frisk dies and Chara has to go back to the last save point to revive Frisk, etc.).I want to seeChara: goofy, playful, friendly Chara, not more of the "evil manipulative psycho" Chara we're all used to.Awesome Chara model by Options by Monster Friend font by Harry Wakamatsu.I just remembered some stuff from the epilogue. Asriel mentions Chara "wasn't the best person" and that they hated humanity, which might fuel the speculation Chara was a bad person at heart, but there's also a few other things to consider:1. At the start of the game, Chara's plan to break the barrier has killed their brother, separated their parents, and brought despair to the underground. Worse, the monsters all credited Chara for bringing hope to the Underground in the same way Frisk eventually does. The choice between the Genocide and Pacifist route is whether Chara is bitter over the decision (and decides to kill everyone) or that they'll take a vow of peace and never hurt anyone again (thus sparking the Pacifist route).2. Asriel is likely bitter over the fact that Chara manipulated them into that faulty plan to break the barrier, killed by humans, and then had his essence put into a flower. Asriel is still an emotionally unstable kid, after all, so why do we take so much weight in his words?3. Undertale is all about characters who seem like jerks or idiots at first, but turn out to be great people worthy of redemption. Chara turning into a good person is possible. Perhaps this is even a meta-example: Chara is so feared by fandom that they will get no mercy, but perhaps one day, somebody will come along and show enough kindness to Chara that we see them in a new light.The more I look into how fandom treats Chara, the more appalled I get. It seems to be the most widely accepted idea that Chara is simply an outside force that negatively influences the players to do bad things as opposed to them doing it themselves, absolving them of all responsibility for the Genocide ending. It's the equivalent of playingand saying, "Captain Walker/I didn't do it! Colonel Conrad forced our hand! We didn't have a choice!"As such, I plan to write an essay on each theory about Chara, but I will say this: the main appeal behind Evil Chara is mainly because, "It's what everyone else thinks." As a critic of popular opinion, it's time I get to work...You know that essay I wanted to make? Here it is: The Many Faces of Chara