Posted April 1st, 2019


"See that heart?" Flowey chirped. "That is your SOUL, the very culmination of your being!"

"I know," Frisk deadpanned. "Do you really think we haven't figured out what a soul is? They always fly out of our bodies when we die. It's really unsettling."

"Your soul starts off weak," Flowey lectured, "but can grow strong if you gain a lot of LV."

"Everyone knows that," Frisk said. "By the way, I'm not a murderer, so that's not gonna happen."

For some time, Flowey just smiled, looking at Frisk silently. "… you know," he said, "I was going to do this thing where I try to kill you, take your soul, and go on a murderous rampage for the hell of it, but actually… I'm not going to do that. Because if I did, that would make me irredeemably evil, beyond salvation, like Chara!"

Frisk tilted their head. "What?"

"You see," Flowey said, "I'm soulless. I lack the ability to care about other people, so I kill them for fun every now and then. It doesn't matter when. It doesn't matter where. I just do it! However, I can't do that anymore, because I'm actually a cute goat named Asriel and I want you to forgive me!"

"O… okay," Frisk said. "I'm… glad you aren't going to do that anymore, but if you really are soulless, then you're not really Asriel, are you?"

"Of course not!" Flowey said. "But that's not an excuse! It doesn't excuse Chara, after all! They are, and I quote, 'empty inside, just like me,' but they're still pure evil for murdering everyone in the Genocide Route!"

Frisk blinked. They weren't following this at all. "I… I don't… who's Chara? And what's a Genocide Route?"

Flowey winked. "You'll see!" He burrowed into the ground.

Well, that was weird, to say the least. Frisk hoped that whoever else lived down here had it together in the head…


Undyne thrust her spear at Frisk. "With the power of seven human souls," she said, "our king, King Asgore Dreemurr, will become a god. With that power, Asgore can finally shatter the barrier. He will finally take the surface back from humanity… and give them back the suffering and pain that we have endured."

Frisk gulped. "S-seriously? You're really going to kill me? I'm just a kid."

Undyne paused, and then she roared with laughter and dropped her spear. "Hell, no! I'm just kidding! I wouldn't try to murder an innocent child so our king can wage war with all of humanity! That would make me irredeemably evil, beyond salvation, like Chara!"

Umm…


"Long ago," Gerson said. "Asgore and I agreed that escaping would be pointless... since once we left, humans would just kill us. I felt a little betrayed when he eventually changed his mind."

"Really?" Frisk asked.

Gerson laughed. "No, silly! That was a joke! If we escape, everything will be sunshine and roses! We monsters are not afraid that anything bad will happen whatsoever. Let's all go to the surface and be BFFs with humanity!"

"Uh…"

"I mean, really," Gerson said. "We wouldn't want to establish a possible motivation for Chara beyond 'they hated humanity.' No! It's not like our king declared war and vowed to destroy humanity because we don't trust them not to declare war on us again! If anyone wants to destroy humanity, they are irredeemably evil, beyond salvation, like Chara!"

Frisk slapped their forehead. They just wanted to go home…


"Your actions here," Sans said, "will determine the fate of the entire world. If you refuse to fight… Asgore will take your soul and destroy humanity."

"He will?" Frisk asked. "He's not bluffing? He really will destroy humanity?"

"Nah," Sans said, "I'm just talking out of my ass. Asgore would never destroy humanity. That would make him irredeemably -"

"OKAY! I GET IT!"


Asgore looked sadly at Frisk. "Human…"

"Let me guess!" Frisk shouted. "'I was going to kill you, but I won't, because that would make me irredeemably evil, beyond salvation, like Chara?'"

"Actually, no," Asgore said. "I'm totally going to try and kill you and destroy humanity."

Frisk gasped. "Really?"

"Yeah," Asgore said, "but I'm going to feel REALLY bad about it. That makes it okay, right?"

"How do you know Chara didn't feel bad about it?" Frisk asked.

Asgore huffed. "Seriously? Haven't you seen the Genocide Route?"

"They were soulless," Frisk said. "They didn't have the capability to care."

"No, they weren't," Asgore said. "Humans souls persist after death, and you absorbed their soul."

They… what? "That's not even possible," Frisk said. "One, Asriel and Chara combined their souls, so it's only natural that they would share the same fate. Two, if Chara's soul hadn't shattered, you would already have seven souls. Three, humans can't absorb human souls. I absorbed Chara's essence, similar to Flowey."

"They poisoned me and laughed about it," Asgore said. "Chara didn't care at all about that."

"Maybe," Frisk said, "or maybe they were just not giving into despair. Asriel did say that it was something that he should have done. So if Asriel hadn't laughed it off, then what had he done? Most likely, he cried profusely over it. Maybe Chara just wanted to make him feel better, show him that it wasn't a big deal. Maybe laughing it off was their way of assuring Asriel that his father was going to be okay."

"That's quite the assumption," Asgore said.

"It is," Frisk said, "but so is your interpretation."

"No," Asgore said. "Everything you believe is wrong, and everything I believe is right."

"Well, now you're just being closed-minded," Frisk said.

Asgore looked closely at them. "Young one, when I look at you... I'm reminded of the human that fell here long ago... you have the same feeling of hope in your eyes."

"Really?" Frisk asked. "I remind you of someone who's irredeemably evil, because we have the same look of hope in our eyes? That's weird."

Asgore hummed. "Yeah, I guess I'm just that dumb, huh? Anyway, there is an ancient prophecy among our people. One day, a savior will come from the heavens. I believe the one that was prophesied was you."

Frisk narrowed their eyes. "You told Chara the same thing, didn't you?"

Asgore paused. "Umm…"

"The future of humans and monsters."

Asgore remained silent.

"And you don't think that might have given Chara ideas?" Frisk asked. "Isn't it possible that you made Chara feel obligated to be your savior, at any cost?"

"Would you just stop?" Asgore asked. "Chara is evil, and you can't change that. Deal with it."

Frisk sighed. "I know there are some things that never change…"


AN: Yes! It's been two years, and I'm still salty about it!

Well, if you made it this far, here's my honest thoughts. Obviously, I've poked a lot of fun at Genocide Chara here, but it's not blaming Chara that annoys me as much as only blaming Chara. To me, the whole point of the Genocide Route is that it doesn't have to happen, but you do it anyway because you can. Genocide is your decision. You can argue that it would be impossible without Chara, but they are merely a soulless gun. You, the player, are the one pulling the trigger, over one hundred times before it finally exercises its own will and explodes in your hand.

That said, the truth is that Chara's characterization is vague, especially if you do not accept the Narrator Chara theory. Why did they hate humanity? Unclear, but if you ask me, the fact that they refused to talk about it implies severe trauma. Either way, it could just be a bonus given the very real threat of another Human-Monster War. I cannot speak for the creator, but I believe that Chara is open to interpretation, much like Frisk (to a lesser extent). You can, after all, name the fallen human. Their true name is Chara, but you can make them your own. Just don't murder literally everyone in your path, or there will be… consequences.