#now I wanna talk about how it's like a classic Japanese ghost story asdgjlkl

[hedonistbyheart]

sorry if this is odd, but i just wanted to say thanks for how you talk about chara! it's so nice to see someone talk about them in a nuanced, sympathetic way. especially when you answered that ask about the line asriel says, about chara not being a good person. i see so many people try to use that to say chara abused him or was a bully, but i've never thought that was accurate or fair. especially after playing the pacifist route and seeing what a fun, passionate, sassy kid chara is as a narrator. that's not to say they did nothing wrong, but i'd much rather sympathize with them as a traumatized kid doing what they thought was right than blindly view them as a horrible person (when that goes against what undertale set up).

You're welcome and I absolutely agree.

I think it makes very little sense to assume that Chara is the only one-dimensional bad person in the entire game, especially when Flowey is right there to illustrate exactly how a character who behaves like a villain in some circumstances can be a hero too.

Some people are inclined to only take Undertale's characters at face value, but you miss the entire point of the game if you do that - and not taking them all at face value also means not trusting any of them blindly.

It means not assuming Toriel is always right and kind, that Papyrus is naive, that Sans is uninterested, that Alphys just wants to help you with no ulterior motives etc. Not a single character in Undertale is just one thing and you can't necessarily trust that what they say isn't based on their own needs and biases.

They're NPCs, but in Undertale the NPCs don't just exist for your benefit, they have their own lives and, even more importantly, their own traumas.

I also think ppl can get really hung up on how little direct info we get about Chara and Asriel's relationship, but I suggest looking at who their in-game parallels are: Undyne and Papyrus.

Chara is tied heavily to Undyne through their similar motivations and they idolize her in the narration and Asriel, by his own admission, connects strongly to Papyrus. I have other posts that elaborate on the parallels, but I think it's very likely that Asriel and Chara were at least as close as Undyne and Papyrus are.

Asriel and Chara were only kids and their story got corrupted, that's why Undertale exists, our "quest" (to quote Papyrus) is to find a way to help lay those two children to rest.

#undertale #undertale meta #ask reply #I could keep going forever like this omg sorry #this game is a treasure trove of analytical possibilities #now I wanna talk about how it's like a classic Japanese ghost story asdgjlkl