UNDERTALE: Chara

• 2 August, 2025
• UNDERTALE
• Essay

Truth be told, I'm not really okay at the time of writing. For now, I'm going to spend time with friends and family. One of the things I did a few months ago in private was write an essay about Chara from UNDERTALE and how much I love them as a character, so, I figured... it would be perfect to share this on my website.

I wrote the following on June 19th.

While at work, I was reminiscing on UNDERTALE. It's one of those games that has fundamentally changed me. Looking for music, I looked through my liked videos on YouTube, initially wanting to listen to Deltarune Chapter 4 OST... but, then, I saw the title, "I love you, Gold." Listening to it reminded me of the animatic that went along with it. The way its composed feels much like a somber waltz, a dance of regrets eventually transforming into acceptance. I started to think about Chara and Asriel's relationship the more I listened...

Chara's character is completely tragic. They climbed the mountain to kill themselves, fail in ending their life, and get adopted by a family of monsters right after. Without second thought, they're accepted, and they're grateful for it. In the True Lab tape with them and Asriel, they're making silly and scary faces with him and having fun. Eventually though, the topic shifts to "the plan." Without a doubt, they learned about monster history since entering the Underground. I'm positive this lead to Chara's hatred of humanity for treating monsters so horribly out of fear. Their own found family, compromised of monsters, could have been wiped out by their own kind. It's possible they hated humans beforehand, but this information justified that hatred on a logical level. This anger on the behalf of their adopted family led to the creation of "the plan," which according to Asriel, was initially to collect 6 human souls (in addition to Chara's own) and break the barrier. However, this came at a cost: Chara, much like their entrance to the Underground, must kill themselves. That way, their SOUL is exposed, and Asriel can absorb it.

The method they chose to kill themselves is interesting to me. They based it off of am accident they and Asriel made when trying to bake a butterscotch cinnamon pie: replacing "flour" with "flower," in this case, buttercups. This caused Asgore to get poisoned, which clearly stuck in Chara's mind as in the True Lab tape, they remind Asriel about it before leading into talks about the plan. They could have gone with any other method, like physically hurting themselves like they tried with their entrance to the Underground. Perhaps they took this route to be inconspicuous to Toriel and Asgore, to avoid suspicion. Both of them would completely forbid the plan, calling it dangerous, had they known. To this day, monsterkind and the remaining Dreemurrs don't know that Chara killed themselves intentionally. Only Flowey knows the truth. Hell, in the tale told in New Home, the monsters telling it believe Asriel absorbed the soul out of grief instead of intent.

Something else to note is how Chara initially said they wanted to claim 6 additional SOULs, but upon getting tk the surface with Asriel, they changed their mind and wanted to wipe out humanity. Not only that, but they withheld how the SOULs would even be taken: by death, something Chara was all too familiar with. Asriel held back Chara from taking action, shocked and scared from the sudden change, which ironically resulted in both of their demise. He was afraid of Chara being upset, and the genocide run of UNDERTALE follows this mindset deeply. Flowey acts in service to "Chara," knowing their plan together had failed. He assumes Chara's new one still involves breaking the barrier, and much like the first time, defects at the last moment. He starts to reconsider their plan again, saying that just living on the surface doesn't seem so bad, and begs Chara not to kill him. But that's when he realizes, the second plan was never about returning to the surface. It was revenge for the first one failing because of him.

Asriel holds so much resentment towards himself for the first failure. In the Pacifist route, he explains that he blamed himself and initially regretted it. The once chance at freedom, taken, because he held Chara back. This follows him in Genocide, too, but Pacifist is where he's able to accept he did the right thing and move on. The same can be said for Chara, too. In Genocide, they wonder why they were brought back to life at all. Their plan, "our plan," had failed, and they expected to never live for a second after the failure. I believe in the NarraChara theory, that claims the narrator in UNDERTALE is Chara in all routes. There's a lot of evidence for it, and it would take much longer to explain all of it here, but I think Pacifist is where they, too, accept they've messed up and are finally able to move on. They awaken from Frisk landing on the golden flowers planted brought from the surface upon the failure of the plan, where Chara's body was burried. In Genocide, they explain they were so confused and looked to the player for guidance.

... In Pacifist, Asriel comes to terms with the fact Chara wasn't the greatest person he idolized them into being, and realizes Frisk is the friend he wishes he had back then. Chara, with how dedicated they were to the Dreemurrs, I feel would both agree and be incredibly hurt. They viewed Asriel as a partner-in-crime, calling the plan "ours" and always wanting to execute it together. To realize and hear that they've hurt him through trying to free monsterkind, in a way to repay them for their kindness, has to hurt, massively. It's already clear Chara hates themselves, and this only adds to it. It's incredibly tragic... The way they hide behind flowers in the photo taken with the Dreemurrs, makes me feel like they felt like for as much as they loved that kindness, they felt they didn't deserve it. Again, it plays into the suicidal behavior they exhibit so prominently.

I love Chara. It's sad they never get the chance to love themselves.