Chara

"SINCE WHEN WERE YOU THE ONE IN CONTROL?"

- Chara before destroying the world.

Chara (last name assumedly Dreemurr upon being adopted by Asgore and Toriel) also known as the Fallen Human or First Human, is the Bigger Bad from the 2015 RPG game Undertale, and the possible secret antagonist in Deltarune. They enable the protagonist named Frisk to save the game's main antagonist, and guide them throughout the Underground. As Frisk is carrying Chara's spirit along, Frisk barely recalls memories of the monsters and the underground through Chara's essence; thus, Chara effectively serves as the narrator throughout every route of the game, helping Frisk and the player whether they choose to show mercy to the enemies encountered throughout it or to slaughter them all and erase the world. Although this is a popular theory among the fandom, this has not fully been proven to be canon.

Chara is the character the player names at the start of the game, and not Frisk (the character the player plays as for the entirety of Undertale). Chara was the one who devised the plan to kill seven humans to break the Barrier; this plan is later adopted by Asgore.

According to several characters, Chara's personality mirrors the protagonist's in the Pacifist Route before LV corruption, with both being described as a beacon of hope for the monsters trapped underground. Differences between the two include Chara's hatred for humanity and how they can be described as utterly dissimilar in the Genocide Route. A human SOUL with the power of determination can, in Chara's own words, awaken them from death. Frisk or the player's behavior also influences Chara's, with good deeds bringing about their salvation, while evil deeds magnify Chara's hatred and teach them human beings are incapable of kindness.

At full LOVE, Chara is one of the few beings in Undertale capable of directly challenging the player's influence over the world.

The game is purposely vague on Chara and their character but upon inspection much can be found about their character through narration and how they are described and thought of by the monsters.

Backstory
For reasons they never disclosed even to their closest friend Asriel, Chara despised humanity, despite being human themself. They climbed a mountain for an "unhappy reason", and once coming across the cave that led to the Underground, they tripped on a root and tumbled into the hole where the monsters lived their lives after the war against humans.

A young Boss Monster by the name of Asriel Dreemurr befriended Chara, and his mother and father Toriel and Asgore took Chara in and raised them as a second child and beloved sibling to Asriel. They grow fond of each other.

A notable event during Chara's stay with the Dreemurrs was when they attempted to bake a pie with Asriel for their adoptive father, King Asgore. As children are known to do, they mixed up "buttercups" and "cups of butter" and accidentally poisoned Asgore. Asriel says that he should just have "laughed off" the incident like Chara did, although it could have been for another reason.

For a certain plan, Chara later decided to take their own life by poisoning themself through consuming buttercups like the ones they had accidentally hurt their father with. Their plan was to give Asriel their SOUL, thereby allowing him to pass through the Barrier that trapped monsters underground and take six human SOULs from the surface. These could then be used to destroy the Barrier and free his people.

Upon reaching the village where Chara had grown up, the humans attacked Asriel on the assumption that he killed Chara. Upon seeing that the humans were hurting Asriel Chara begs him to fight back and stop them but Asriel refuses, dooming the both of them. He returned to the Underground to die before his parents, in the Royal Garden. Greatly angered, Asgore decides to wage war against the humans.

Asriel's remains and memories were placed into one of the golden flowers that grew around his dead body by Alphys' experiments. The flower was imbued with DETERMINATION, which caused Asriel to be reborn as Flowey. Chara's essence (not SOUL since humans cannot absorb humans' SOULs) and consciousness seemed to have been resurrected as a spirit that gives Frisk and the player the DETERMINATION to SAVE and RESET.

Genocide Route
In the Genocide Route, the player corrupts Frisk (and in turn denies Chara's salvation) and causes them to become violent, similar to Flowey. Chara's morality (which was already wroth and furious) becomes even more vengeful and psychopathic. As they kill more and more monsters, Chara begins to assume control wherever possible to speed the game up, much like a typical RPG player grinding. Under the player's guidance, they watch Frisk kill every monster in the game, including Toriel, Papyrus, and Undyne, all of whom try to convince the player to stop. Chara's speech also becomes increasingly first person, referring to their drawing of a flower as "My drawing", unlike in the True Pacifist Route, where they refer to it as "A drawing of a flower".

Upon arrival at Asgore's palace, Sans confronts Frisk, surprisingly and efficiently proving to be possibly the most battleground character in the game. Despite having the weakest of powers - his HP, ATK and DEF stats being a mere one - he dodges the player's hits, which makes the entire battle a struggle to land a single, fatal blow. Furthermore, Sans' attacks are continuous and are enhanced by some sort of venom which makes them deal continuous damage to Frisk's SOUL as long as it is making contact with them, rather than a single hit like every other attack in the game. The last hit is delivered by the player after Sans falls asleep, which misses, before another hit is delivered by an unknown person. He then reminds the player that he warned them of the consequences before "heading off to Grillby's" and seemingly dying and dissolving off-screen. The player then proceeds to attack Asgore even when he kindly spoke to them. Asgore is then killed by a desperate Flowey, who was enthusiastic about the player's choice to destroy the Underground's entire population, but also knows he is going to be killed as well. Flowey claims that he had never betrayed Chara, that his betrayals at the start of the game and when he warned Asgore of Chara's arrival were mere pranks, and begs the player not kill him as he modifies his face to mimic Asriel.

When the player chooses to kill Flowey and Chara reveals themself to Frisk claiming that all the power stats represent themself, they ask the player to join them in destroying the world. At this point, the player can back out only by closing the game, but choosing either option results in Chara destroying the world and closing the game themself in the process.

If the player reopens the game, they will only encounter a void in the remnants of the Underground. After ten minutes, Chara offers them to return the world in exchange for their SOUL. To fully restore the world, the player has to accept; otherwise, Chara will leave until the player restarts the game and waits ten more minutes.

If the world is restored and the player completes a True Pacifist Route, its ending is modified to that of a horror game. If Frisk chooses to stay with Toriel, Frisk wakes up with Chara's features and emits a slower version of Flowey's signature laugh. If Frisk claims to have places to go, Chara replaces Frisk in the picture in the end and crosses everyone else's faces out.

If the player completes the Genocide Route a second time, Chara will speak to the player again. Chara describes them as "wracked with a perverted sentimentality", stating that they could not understand doing a second Genocide Route. They will then make the same offer to destroy the world as they did before, with the same results of the player's choice in both routes.

Neutral and True Pacifist Routes
At any time, should the player fail to meet an area's requirements to continue the No Mercy Route (save Sans, who kills Frisk if they accept his offer when he pretends to SPARE them), you have the option to continue without grinding for more EXP and attain one of the Neutral endings.

Throughout these routes, just as in No Mercy, Chara provides flavor text for Frisk and the player. However, these routes show a very different side to their personality. Gone are the blunt and harsh fragmented sentences of the No Mercy Route. Chara shows themself to be very sarcastic and contumelious, make puns and jokes, and become so overcome with emotion during the fights against their parents that they fall completely silent. They clearly have a large vocabulary for someone so young and enjoy describing the world around them.

During the True Pacifist final boss fight against Asriel, it is implied that Chara provides memories to save Asriel as otherwise there is no way for Frisk to get those exact memories. Through Chara's memories of Asriel his rampage is finally stopped, and he uses the power of all of the SOULs he has absorbed to break the Barrier and free monsterkind. In this run, it's heavily implied that Chara found peace as in this run they describe the bag of the dog food from Alphys's laboratory as "half-full" (while as "half-empty" if anyone's killed) which indicates that they are optimistic and as after the credits, if the player reloads their save file by reopening the game, Flowey implies that everything Chara was worried about is realized (monsters' freedom and peace), thus they can "take a deep breath".

Of note is the fact that Flowey, later transformed into Asriel when he regains his original body at the end of the True Pacifist Route, mistakes Frisk for Chara even when they are on the True Pacifist Route. When he realizes his mistake, the player learns that the name Chara - or any name they chose at the creation of their save file - isn't the protagonist's, but the first human's. This realization doesn't occur in the Neutral or Genocide Routes, as Asriel isn't properly SAVED and still holds on to the memory of his sibling.

Chapter 1
While it as unknown at this time, it seems like Chara may have appeared in the sequel to Undertale, Deltarune. Kris, the main protagonist of the game, has a strikingly similar resemblance to Chara in the normal world, although their skin tone is most similar to Frisk's. Like Chara, Kris is siblings with Asriel, who is somehow alive again, possibly because Deltarune takes place in an AU (Alternate Universe), according to Toby Fox. At the end of the first chapter, Kris wakes up, gets out of bed, and tears out their SOUL, throwing it into a cage. Kris is seen holding a knife, their smile turning sinister as their one visible eye glows red (shown above). This is similar to how Chara was seen at the end of the Post-Genocide Pacifist Route, possibly implying that Kris has been possessed. If Kris truly is being possessed, then it could be possible that Chara is the one who is in control. If so, Chara could end up being the main antagonist in the next chapter of Deltarune.

Trivia

 * Chara is implied to be complex as well as every character from the game rather than limited to being good or bad.
 * Chara's color scheme for their clothes (yellow and green) is a color negative of Frisk's (blue and purple).
 * "Chara" is likely short for word the "character", as all internal references of either Frisk (mainchara) or Chara (truechara) use "chara".
 * Chara notes that they were confused at first upon awakening, and the player taught them just how essential power is for success.
 * This implies that on the Genocide route, the player is responsible for confirming Chara's highly negative worldview.
 * It is heavily implied that they are the narrator in both the Neutral and True Pacifist Route as well.
 * Chara has several implicit connections with other characters:
 * They seem to idolize Undyne, referring to her as a hero in all routes.
 * This is particularly notable in the No Mercy Route, where they fall silent as she slowly melts.
 * In one of Asgore's drawers in New Home, a knitted sweater can be found with the words "Mr Dad Guy" on it. On the No Mercy Route, Chara remarks, "Still has that sweater", which implies they are the one who knitted it.
 * They know that Asriel's revived form is named "The Absolute GOD of Hyperdeath!" and has specially named attacks, implying that this is a character he created and told Chara about.
 * The battles against Toriel, Asriel, and Asgore are the only ones other than Undyne's where Chara will fall completely silent.
 * They make a special note of Snowdrake on the No Mercy Route. If the player does not kill Snowdrake before they completed the kill count, they will remark "The comedian got away", and in the case Snowdrake isn't killed when you arrive in Snowdin while the Snowdin kill count isn't completed yet they will remark "That comedian...".
 * If the player decides to laugh at Snowdrake's mother, Chara starts on a somewhat cruel and pointed act about laughing until you cry, ending with "what, you didn't do that?". It was possible that this implies that laughing in stressful situations was a coping mechanism while they were alive.
 * Many details throughout the game imply Chara possibly struggled with self harm and even suicidal urges:
 * Toriel's gardening tools are blunted and her fire is not hot enough to burn. She also hides her knives.
 * The text they give for the faded ribbon is "If you're cuter, monsters won't hit you as hard.". This might imply that Chara was abused in the past.
 * Chara seems to read quite a bit, as evidenced by their expansive vocabulary and a word-for-word quotation from Banana Yoshimoto's Kitchen in the No Mercy Route.
 * They seem to enjoy learning in general, such as when they get very excited to learn that Toriel owns a "water sausage", which they did not know the name of until reading it in a book in-game.
 * Chara seems to have loved their family as the family's photo is angled towards their bed as if this is the last thing Chara wanted to see before closing their eyes; it also appears like they're "smiling" in the photo while we can see them having their face hidden behind flowers in this photo, which implies that they were genuinely happy with them.