I’m going to try to put all my current headcanons on Chara in one place, since I was asked too. I’m going to try to do this in descending order, following the train of logic from what is clear on the surface to what I assume on the deeper end. I may retread a lot of ground that other people have already covered; I follow a lot of Chara enthusiast blogs that did a lot of this work for me, honestly, but I’mma try to put everything in a row. Beware, it is a very long post.



The first is the established ‘passive Chara’ or ‘Charrator’ theory. The idea, here, is that Chara is the narrator in all routes of Undertale. Pretty self-explanatory. Chara is both narration and the interface, for us. The clearest evidence for this is that there is no distinction drawn between first-person dialogue in the narration that is CLEARLY Chara talking, and the other narration. The red text is clearly distinct from the white text, but when you look in the mirror during the Kill All, you see ‘It’s me, Chara’ in WHITE TEXT. When you go around New Home during a Kill-All, there’s lots of first person dialogue, some of it in red text, but lots of it in white text. Like ‘my bed,’ and ‘his bed.’ It makes the same ‘voice’ sound. It’s formatted in the same way. So, I think that all the narration is from Chara. (*)

Now, the main problem, on the surface, with this theory, is that the narration in the neutral, pacifist and kill-all routes are VERY different in tone. That seems like pretty clear evidence to the contrary, doesn’t it? The save points in neutral and pacifist runs are often uplifting, happy, funny and full of a kind of sarcastic joy. But, I think that marks a change in Chara’s perspective between runs, rather than illustrating that they aren’t talking. At the end of a Kill All, they tell us, ‘when I woke up, I was so confused. Our plan had failed, hadn’t it? Why was I brought back? You. With your guidance, I realized the purpose of my reincarnation. Power. Together, we eradicated the enemy and became strong.’

Think about that. Chara learned that violence and murder was the answer … With OUR guidance. What’s more, whenever the narration says ‘you,’ it is referring to Frisk … the only reason it didn’t call them Frisk from the beginning was to prolong the obfuscation and prevent us from realizing we had not named the character we controlled. Chara is talking to Frisk then, who is controlled by us. In spite of what we saw when we looked into a mirror, WE, and Frisk, were in control. This is strengthened by the fact that we can CLEARLY find the point where Chara wrests control from us. The last attack on Sans … we don’t press the fight button that kills him. It happens on its own … As Chara wrests control of Frisk’s body and makes us take the killing blow, and during the final scene with Asgore and Flowey we do not get to make any commands at all while those two are cut down in front of us.

And why wouldn’t Chara, at this point? They’ve been taught that this is the answer. They’ve been twisted by LOVE, into seeing violence as easy and even right. When Asgore and Flowey are killed, we don’t have control. It’s a cutscene. Chara is in control, then. And that means? Every attack we made, every kill we gathered up, every EXP we earned, every point of LOVE we obtained before that instant was not Chara, but Frisk through our input.

What does that mean for passive Chara? It means that a Chara in a pacifist or neutral run has not been shown that violence is the best and only way to move forward. They have not been taught that the purpose of their reincarnation is ‘Power.’ So they are not bloodthirsty, they are not hungry to kill, to gain EXP after EXP, and so their true personality shines through.

Think about the narration for a moment. It’s really not very objective, is it? It’s snarky, and it’s full of puns and jokes. Think about when you take monster candy until the basin falls over. ‘Look at what you’ve done!’ the narrator says, practically shaking a finger under Frisk’s nose. ‘Look at these cool toys! They don’t interest you at all.’ The narrator clearly thinks that the toys are super neat and cool, and is surprised that Frisk does not agree. (*) (*)

In order to find Chara in the narration, first let’s talk about their brother, Asriel, as a baseline. We know that Asriel borrows a lot of his speech mannerisms and habits from their dad, Asgore. ‘Howdy.’ ‘Golly.’ We know that Chara borrows some habits from their mother Toriel, because the first word we see on the ending of a Kill-All run is ‘Greetings.’ That’s Toriel’s quirk when they say hello to someone, in the same way that monster kid says ‘yo’ and that Asriel and Asgore say ‘howdy.’ Let’s think about this. What does the narration have in common with Toriel?

They both enjoy wordplay and complicated, intelligent words. And the PUNS, oh dear lord, the puns! They happen all the time. There’s a post that lays out these facts, and the way that the children line up with their parents, far better than I can, right here. (*)

But, why do the puns stop in a Kill-All run? I actually think it is the corrosive influence of mounting LOVE and Frisk’s influence. When in a Kill-All, Chara isn’t here to have fun. They’re here to kill, systematically and thoroughly. They don’t laugh. They don’t joke. It’s a tragic change, if you believe in it. I made a larger submission about how I think LOVE corrupts Chara here, if you want to read it. (*)

After you read that, I’d like to make another point. About Chara, and being funny … It’s a recent theory of mine, based on something more indirect. Now, it’s clear that Chara influences a lot of what Frisk says. You can use the Woshua jokes as an example. It says, for instance, ‘you make a joke about a child sleeping beneath the soil.’ That is CLEARLY Chara, buried beneath the flower patch. ‘You make a joke about two children playing in a dirty flowerbed.’ Asriel and Chara, playing in a flowerbed. ‘You make a joke about a child eating a pie with their hands.’ Toriel loves baking pie, doesn’t she? Wouldn’t she make pie for her kids all the time?

When you >Joke, the stories that ‘you’ tell Woshua are very clearly Chara stories, so Chara has some influence on what Frisk says and thinks, even in a pacifist run. I’m going to make a reach, now, and assume that this happens in other places too, to make a point. Have you ever >heckled snowdrake, instead of >laughing? I have. I’ll tell you what happens. You tell Snowdrake he’s not funny, and no one will ever love him.

Ooooh, harsh, isn’t it? Kinda makes Chara look pretty nasty, doesn’t it? Well, YOU made the choice to heckle, but that aside, think about that in respect to how humorous Chara is in the various runs. In neutral and pacifist runs, Chara jokes at you through the narration. They pun, they make jokes about Snowdekahedrons, the item screen is funny and silly and full of weird sounds and childish ‘butts pie’ jokes. We have no reason to believe that Snowdrake has family problems until we meet their father later, and yet Chara automatically assumes that Snowdrake is doing what they’re doing to be loved and liked. Is it possible that someone is … projecting? Maybe parroting something someone once told Chara on the surface?

In a kill-all, Chara has given up on being funny. Because like we told Snowdrake, ‘I’m not funny, and no one will ever love me.’ Without love, Chara finds their purpose in LOVE and power.

What’s more, you cannot say that Chara is not with you in the neutral and pacifist runs. Every time you die, you hear Asgore’s voice. ‘Chara, stay determined!’ Chara remembers the words that Asgore said to them, on their deathbed, constantly. Think about that! Asgore was clearly very important to them. They remember Asgore’s words every time something horrible happens. Death. Death is traumatic. But Chara’s memory of Asgore’s final plea is so strong that it echoes into Frisk, and helps give them the determination to tell death ‘no’ one more time. And when we fall in Waterfall, what brings us back? What helps wake us up? The memory of Chara calling for help, and Asriel finding them. Think about that! Let me phrase that in a way Undertale players may be more familiar with: ‘they called for help … and somebody came.’ Think about how important that is! Asriel is the person who came when Chara called for help. (*)

And the cutscenes that we see, when the game begins and when we finally save Asriel at the end of True pacifist … That’s not Frisk, that’s Chara. Frisk feels the echo of those memories, giving them the strength and empathy to make that final push to ‘save’ Asriel. If you continue from this understanding, it becomes easier to accept Chara as the narrator, because you KNOW that they are there. Undertale makes a habit of playing with our expectations of typical RPG tropes. It dismantled and reconstructed the idea of EXP and LV. It makes thematic sense that the narrator, this voice that tells us all about the world around us, that we take at face value without question, is a representation of something more. (*) (*)

When you accept the passive Chara theory, you suddenly see a more laid back, fun and empathetic Chara. Do you know when the flavor text for the pacifist and neutral runs stop, and when the narrator stops telling you about how determined you are? It’s after you take the Long Elevator to the king’s Castle, after Alphys tells us that, if we want to leave the Underground, we’ll have to kill Asgore and take their soul.

Think about that sudden silence. The places we visit, and the save points we see, are scenic and beautiful. The last corridor. The throne room. The end. There are PLENTY of things for the narrator to comment on, to talk about, but instead it says nothing. If you see this from a passive Chara perspective, then it seems like Chara has been stunned somber and speechless at the prospect of killing Asgore. And when you DO fight him? The only thing the narrator says is ‘…’ When you >check them, the narrator doesn’t tell you anything more than Asgore’s stats. That NEVER HAPPENS before or again in the game. There are no puns in New Home, no jokes, no little funnies. It’ll be bittersweet or sad or uplifting. (despite everything, it’s still you) And besides, have you ever looked at Chara’s bed in neutral and pacifist? ‘What a comfortable bed! If you laid down in it, you might never get up.’ That? Is the bed Chara DIED IN. Look at Chara, dancing around the issue, not quite telling us the whole story, because they DID lie down in that bed, and they never got up.

Consider the dialogue on the worn dagger! I already talked a little bit about the difference between the Real Knife and the Worn Dagger in my submitted post, but I want to go more into it. When you look at its >info, it tells us that the dagger is ‘perfect for cutting plants and vines.’ Chara, our Chara, the so-called bloodthirsty evil demonic chara, looks at this SHARP DEADLY INSTRUMENT and thinks, ‘oh! Perfect for gardening.’

Asgore has kept this room almost untouched since the death of his children. This dagger? Was there when Toriel was a present and active mom for both of them. We know how aggressively Toriel works to keep children safe. There is nothing sharp in Home. And yet, there is this sharp thing? Actually, there is this sharp thing that is implied to be Chara’s?! Like hell, I thought, when I first saw that. There’s something more here. And I think there is. You would need a good reason, that Toriel approved of, and that she would have to give careful weight, before letting one of her children near something that could harm them, let alone a goddamn dagger. Hurting people is not one of them. But gardening? That might be one. Chara loved plants, and it would bring them joy. And the clue is in the name; a WORN dagger, this has been used extensively to garden, to take care of things.

This puts new context to the way that the narrator reacts to plants! It gives them personality. When you talk to the cactus it affectionately refers to it as ‘tsundere.’ When you look at the water sausage, first it says you know it but don’t know its name. But after you read the book on plants and go back, the narrator seems so happy! ‘Oh! A water sausage!’ They’re so happy to have learned something new about plants. How can you not love them? (*)

Now let’s talk about the tapes, and Chara’s plan to break the barrier. If Chara were truly malevolent, they had the opportunity to kill Asriel, Toriel and Asgore. We know that Chara could absorb their souls, and become a being of great power, and then leave to take revenge on humanity. Instead, they chose to die … And were suicidal before, let’s remember! Now, I feel like a lot of the uneasiness we feel about Chara is fueled by the tapes. The ‘creepy face’ that Chara makes, and the fact that they laugh when Asgore got hurt by the buttercup poisoning. Some people think they even PLANNED it, tested it on Asgore.

Well if it was a test they would have looked for a different way to do it, because you should look up the effects of buttercup poisoning. It is brutal, it is torturous—and I do mean TORTUROUS. Here’s another post by another person to help illustrate how much pain Chara put themselves through, to understand how much Chara must have hated themselves, to think that this is a fitting way to commit suicide for the plan: (*)

Chara picked a slow, terrible, and painful way to die. And the method they picked? Was the exact same method that hurt Asgore. Now, we know that Chara was ALREADY suicidal, and maybe helped out of that by being adopted into a loving goat family. But, can you imagine them after seeing this family, who helped them through everything, who came to them when they called for help and … In return, they poison them. Not on purpose, but does it matter? Chara was looking at proof that their extended stay was hurting the people they love. So, they look at it, and they decide, ‘yes, I do not deserve to live. I can die, and when I die, I can use my death to help these people who have helped me and hurt all the humans who hurt me.’

I’m going to posit that Chara’s laughter is actually a tool they use to relieve stress in horrible situations. Have you ever laughed at Snowdrake’s mom? I did, because they looked like Snowdrake, and I thought the answer would be the same. Haha … Of course I was wrong. ‘You laugh, it’s so funny … tears run down your face. Huh? You didn’t do that?’

That’s kinda INTERESTING, isn’t it? Someone is surprised you aren’t doing what they’re expecting. The narrator is supposed to be an objective voice, isn’t it? Neutral? Yet here it’s mistaken. It’s a person. The only person it COULD BE is Chara. And they’re laughing. If you try to laugh again, what they say is ‘but it’s not funny.’ The moment of hysteria is gone and instead Chara is just saddened by what they see. And if that’s why they laughed at Snowdrake’s mom … why did they laugh at Asgore’s poisoning? Seems pretty clear it’s not because they’re happy about it. (*)

Let’s talk about Asgore and Chara … When you walk into the room in a neutral and pacifist playthrough, Asgore turns around, and then steps back with wide eyes. The first time I saw this, I thought it was because Asgore saw a human. But … First, let’s talk about the music that starts to play. It’s called ‘Small Shock’ and it only plays twice in the entire game. The first time is here, in this room. The second time is when Flowey is talking to Frisk/Chara at the end of a Kill-All, before you fight Sans. I think, when Asgore turns around, for a moment, he thinks he is looking at his child. That he is looking at Chara. Both times that Small Shock plays it’s when a Dreemurr looks at Frisk and sees Chara in them.

What’s more, Asgore clearly doesn’t want to fight you. When you march with him to the final battle, it’s like he’s walking to his own execution. He’s so sad, and so broken up about it. But … He said he declared war on humanity in a fit of anger. He doesn’t seem angry to me, not then. Where is the rage at the people that took their child from them? Asgore can’t muster it, not against you.

There’s more evidence for this. Look at his stats. He’s 80 ATK, 80 DEF. That’s second only to Undyne the Undying. I approached him at LV 1. With 20 HP. I should have had my ass wiped clean across the floor, effortlessly! I actively tried to kill mettaton before I came, but I accidentally pushed myself above the ratings because just taking and dealing damage I was already earning enough ratings to spare him automatically. And yet somehow I manage to beat down Asgore, with 80 defense? No. Something’s up.

Monster magic, we know, is strengthened based on their will to harm a target, and their resilence is defined by how hard their hearts are fortified against you. Asgore is willing and able to kill you, but he doesn’t WANT to, so he is neutered, rendered feeble. I imagine that other children were found by Asgore, humans who did not have Chara shining behind their eyes like we did, children that faced the full force of Asgore’s power and lost everything until they abandoned their determination.

We get more support for this later. During Asgore’s suicide scene, he offers us up his soul, rather than let us spare him and let him live. Why does he do this? Partially, he believes that we are the angel who has seen the surface, that will one day lead the Underground to freedom, and that with his soul we may one day free them. But where does this faith come from? He says that he sees a hope in our eyes, a hope he saw in a human who fell down here long ago.

But he killed, or ordered killed, all the humans that came to the underground, right? He would not have such positive memories of them. Except for … Oh. Chara. He straight up TELLS US here that we remind him of Chara. And when you select >stare during the final battle with Asriel, it says that he sees the gaze of humans past out of our eyes. He trusts us because we remind him of Chara. (*)

Let’s think about that for a moment. He would trust his soul to this child, who vaguely reminds him of Chara. Think about that, think about the kind of person Chara must have been, to make that trust happen even second-hand. Think about Chara, with a bright hope shining behind their eyes. Picture the sort of kid Chara may have been, when they were not caught up in the darkness of their hatred, that their presence helped to bring hope to the ENTIRE Underground. That even now, perhaps a century later, Asgore is willing to hand the future of his people into the hands of a stranger because they remind him of Chara, because maybe some part of him can see behind Frisk’s eyes and knows that Chara IS there, somewhere.

Wow, they must have been a reaaaaaal demon, that Chara, let me tell you.

(If you want to feel really sad about what the Kill-All run does to Chara, remember that when Asgore turns around and sees you, he doesn’t even recognize you as human. They have been rendered unrecognizable to one of the people most close to them by how deeply you have corrupted them)

The sweater, in the drawer, was clearly made by the kids, for ‘Mr. Dad Guy.’ When you look at it in a Kill-All, Chara remarks in red that Asgore ‘still has that sweater’ … Red like the flower by Chara’s bed that they made themselves, hinting that Chara knitted this sweater with their own two hands, just like they drew that flower. These gifts and things are expressions of a child’s real love toward their parents. And Chara loved their parents … there is no doubt in my mind about that. Perhaps even continues to love their parents, as long as you don’t do a Kill-All and destroy their ability to love and care about anything at all.

Let’s talk about how Chara became bound with Frisk. Chara was taken by Toriel and given a ‘proper’ funeral, being buried under the ground, and in monster style, Toriel planted golden flowers over Chara’s grave, so that the roots would reach down and Chara’s essence would mix with their favorite thing, the golden flowers. Now, much later, Frisk falls down this hole, and they are a beacon of incredible determination. They probably came here to die, but, faced with the reality of immediate death, something primal burns bright, ‘I don’t want to die’ and determination flares. Determination, let me remind you, being the force that caused Asriel’s essence to mix with a golden flower. In these flowers, Chara’s essence was taken into Frisk’s body, and suddenly they had a co-pilot. In a way, they’re human, technically, but … Not. They’re a weird mental amalgamate now, like the things that Alphys keeps beneath the true lab … Which may also help explain why both Frisk and Chara are so thoroughly freaked out by them.

Now, Chara has no soul of their own right? So, that makes them like Flowey, right? No ability to care or feel compassion. Well … Something’s different about Chara. Chara, instead of being mixed with an inanimate object, became mixed into the body of a person. Frisk DOES have a soul. Frisk DOES have the ability to feel compassion and love. And, through Frisk, Chara is enabled to feel those things as well. However, their feelings are stilted, they’re not quite their own. If Frisk doesn’t exercise love, Chara doesn’t feel love. If Frisk doesn’t exercise compassion, Chara doesn’t feel compassion. Their nature is dependent entirely on Frisk’s and by extension the player’s choices. Do a neutral or pacifist? You’re sparing everyone, or just trying to survive. You have a working sense of empathy, and that reflects in Chara, who retains a sense of humor and soberness about harming those closest to them. Do a Kill-All? Chara has no practice feeling emotions, now. They are like Flowey, now, because while Frisk has a soul they certainly aren’t using it as anything more than a source of determination and power. They follow your lead and chase power for power’s own sake.

Let’s talk a little bit about the end of the Kill-All, again, and what happens. Chara, who you have fed darkness and violence until it erased everything and everyone other people loved about them and all the things they loved about themselves, Chara, who you have walked through the underground as you slaughtered everything they loved and cared for while turning them into something that does not care about their deaths at all, turns around and says hello to you. They thank you. And then, they hold out their hand and say, let’s destroy this world together, and move on to the next one. This Chara, who butchered their father, who cut down their best friend and brother without a thought, turns around and wants you to come with them. Wants to be your partner. Wants to be with you together forever and ever. Even after everything, even after being turned into a demon through the crucible of your sins, considers you a friend, and wants to take you with them. They don’t want to be alone.

Consider what happens in a soulless pacifist run! The mirrors still say ‘you,’ and eventually ‘still you, Frisk.’ Frisk is still there! Frisk is even still in control, for most of the time! What the hell is Chara doing with the rights to your soul, if they’re not exerting control over you? The only time they seem to use their right is at the end of a pacifist run, when they kill all your friends. They don’t want Frisk to be gone. They don’t want sole ownership of the body. They just want to be the partner that has veto rights over the other partner, at all times, to make sure Frisk can’t turn away from them like Asriel did. And when they kill everyone at the end? “You already killed them, Frisk, you can’t be mad! And besides, you don’t NEED them. You have me, and we’ll be together forever!” Chara kills them because Frisk is THEIR partner, and they won’t let anyone take Frisk away from them.

But if you never complete a Kill-All run? Chara leaves with a different understanding of their purpose. A purpose that helps to heal their old wounds, and gives them redemption through the breaking of the barrier by other means. The relationship they have with Frisk is beautiful and symbiotic instead of twisted, possessive and abusive on both ends. Whether Chara and Frisk become partners in the salvation of all monsters or the destruction of a universe all depends on our choices, Frisk’s choices. They can be something more horrible than any human or monster or more beautiful than either.

I think I’ve said most of what I have to say, but here’s some miscellaneous things I didn’t manage to find room to put in here …

Toriel has seeds and crayons in one of her drawers. The reason I said she planted the golden flowers, aside from fitting the typical monster funeral tradition, is because she has those seeds. It makes sense to me that she carried them deliberately from New Home back to the Ruins to plant them on Chara’s grave. Also, remember that the book on plants—plants, which Chara loves—was open in Toriel’s room. Was she reading about Chara’s favorite thing in memory of them? I’ll bet you anything she was. Also the chocolate in her fridge is almost certainly in memory of Chara’s love for chocolate.

Secondly, I don’t know how authentic Asgore’s passion for gardening is. Hear me out; a gardener who does so for their own enjoyment probably has a wide variety of plants. Asgore, however, has only ONE. Golden flowers. Chara’s favorite thing. Asgore carefully and deliberately cultivates ONLY Chara’s favorite thing, he drinks Chara’s favorite tea, (if you believe Chara dictated the exact choice of tea Frisk made at Undyne’s house, which I do) he has a flower motif ON HIS TRIDENT. I half believe that Asgore’s gardening habit is entirely out of tribute to his dead child, another way he locks the past around himself, surrounding evidence of everything he’s lost until his life is nothing but shadows of his dead children and lost love.

Aaaaaand that’ll be the close of this post. I think this has all of my Chara headcanons.

You know.

For now.