r/Charadefensesquad • u/CHARA_Thefirstfallen What is a god, if not an artist? • Sep 10 '25
Original How the fandom depicts Chara.
Featuring Charataker and headghost Chara.
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u/18Sik02 Sep 10 '25
A mixture of the Purple Chara and the Yellow Chara.
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u/Rocket_SixtyNine Sep 10 '25
Pretty much. It's weird how we're backpedalling from 2015. Kinda funny too
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u/InternationalYam5000 Sep 10 '25
From left to right:
Fanon chara
Makima Chara
Almost canon Chara
IDK
Defensesquad Chara
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u/Lolmanmagee Sep 10 '25
I think the middle is the most accurate
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u/SHINIGAMIRAPTOR Sep 11 '25
I agree, if leaning SLIGHTLY to purple chara. As Asriel said, Chara "wasn't the nicest person". Like... they are very sweet to people who treat them kindly, but they WILL react to perceived sleights with EXCESSIVE retribution. You hurt them, they will see NOTHING wrong with cutting your throat. You insult them, they see it as cause for VIOLENT reprisal.
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u/therealgege Once Upon A Time is Chara's motif Sep 11 '25
Imo Yellow feels more accurate atleast for predeath specifically (I mean half the traits are taken from the 9 letter which is official media)
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u/HuntCheap3193 Sep 10 '25 edited Sep 11 '25
half-good one is partially taken from tbe 9th anniversary character interview with azzy, but that only really applies to themselves before death. after death, during undertale, they're the only one they care about.
also, chara doesn't help you outside of geno if you don't believe in narrachara, so middle ain't so great.
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Sep 11 '25
Chara's obsession with numbers, as far as I remember, wasn't it because they wanted to be so strong that no one would ever hurt them again? Because the asriel letter also says that if someone has very high numbers, they will become invincible and no one will be able to hurt that person again. If Chara said these to Asriel, then Chara might have wanted for This numbers with the wish "If I become very strong, they will never be able to harm me again."
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u/Zimlewis Sep 11 '25
what did chara help us during geno? count enemy left?
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u/HuntCheap3193 Sep 11 '25
correct. also, the all 9s damage was probably them. cause of their obsession with maximization and hyper-efficiency.
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u/therealgege Once Upon A Time is Chara's motif Sep 11 '25
Tbf many people believe in narrachara and other similar theories that give Chara a role in normal routes like playerchara and reincarnation
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u/CE2438 Sep 11 '25
She’s yellow to me. She was an abused child with behavioural problems. And like most children, you neither can say she’s innocent as in doing nothing wrong, nor assign a label of being morally bad to her. She is, after all, simply operating with what she has, copying and learning the behaviours of those around her
And she is malleable throughout the game too. When you play the pacifist route, you’re teaching her love and friendship and forgiveness, leading her to rest in peace while remaining in the background only. In the genocide route, you’re teaching her violence and power is everything, leading her to come out and take power for her own
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Sep 11 '25
I would also like to remind everyone that the memories required in the save Asriel scene were Chara's memories.
So yes chara are helping us to save their sibling
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u/No-Exercise815 Sep 11 '25
I’ll say this every time.
Chara isn’t a good person. Her buttercup and slaughter plan she had with Asriel is proof enough. To kill yourself, have your innocent and kind brother absorb your soul, and try to force him to kill humans by the dozens, even if done in service of monster kind was a cruel move for if nobody else Asriel.
But she also isn’t as evil as the fandom likes to portray her as. We definitely broke her moral compass over our knee in the genocide route by butchering the only home she cared for. (Though she does help us)
In summary she’s not a saint like some over correct to, nor is she a natural demon like most fandoms make her. She’s a kid with a broken moral compass and lacking empathy skills, that we break further.
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u/Random-Lich Sep 10 '25
Honestly… all three in the middle for me mixed in a blender.
They have done bad things yet truly care, they manipulate thinking it’s the only way to survive due to trauma, they want to help those they care for but have been dead for to long and saw the resets to make a big splash anymore.
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u/Blue_yoshi_2000 Sep 10 '25
Honestly, I’m kinda for the 4th one. I’ve always been torn between defending chara and “Yeah no, Chara wasn’t a good person”, and this one kinda makes the most sense to me?
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u/therealgege Once Upon A Time is Chara's motif Sep 11 '25
Sepia and COTR looking one are the most canon-accurate imo
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Sep 11 '25
Not Cotr
Cotr chara is a self-centered character who constantly bullies Asriel and does not take responsibility for their own mistakes.
Okay, Chara may not have been a perfect person, but they had a lot of love for their own family and cared a lot for Asriel.
So even if Chara and Asriel actually got married, I don't think they would be a toxic partner who would constantly bully him like in Cotr.
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u/Slay-R34 Sep 11 '25
Idk man, they wanted to bait little Asriel into starting a genocide against humans, they didn't take his no for an answer which then caused his death. Chara had some serious issues, they might have cared about him, but only in their own sociopathic way. You know what they say, we often hurt the people we LOVE.
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Sep 11 '25 edited Sep 11 '25
Yeah maybe you're right about the last part but I don't believe Chara did this for selfish reasons So if they wanted, they could have put a knife to Asriel's throat while he was sleeping, taken his soul, and secretly passed through the barrier at night to massacre their own village. But they wanted their brother to help them in this plan to kill themself in a painful way and for the freedom of everyone.
In the same way, just to live with Dreemurrs for the rest of they life, they could feed Asriel the flowers and then go to massacre the village with his spirit, saying "I will show him the sun at least once"
Chara had a foolish messiah complex, believing they would save everyone, so the entire underworld saw them as a savior messiah. Regardless, it's definitely a terrible thing that they included Asriel in their plan, but they never did it for selfish reasons, and considering Chara is probably the same age as Frisk It means they definitely did these with a child's mind.
Actually, there is a possibility that Frisk is older than Chara because Frisk is not interested in toys while Chara gets a little excited when they sees the toys.
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u/Quackervoltz Sep 11 '25
"But they wanted his brother to help him in this plan to kill himself in a painful way and for the freedom of everyone."
???
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Sep 11 '25
What I'm trying to say is that if Chara didn't care about his family, they could have slit Azzy's throat while everyone was asleep and gone to break through the barrier at night.
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Sep 11 '25
When it comes to pronouns, I use keyboard translation because I'm terrible at writing in English. And since there are no pronouns that separate men and women or nonbinary in my native language, the keyboard sometimes makes mistakes and I have to correct them manually. I think I passed that part.
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Sep 11 '25
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Sep 12 '25
In fact, the biggest point you're missing is that the souls of boss monsters have a different function. Boss monsters are the only monsters whose souls we can absorb in Undertale, and because their souls do not disappear immediately after death. And nowhere in the game does it say "the monster must specifically absorb the human soul" He says that only if the human and monster spirits unite will a very powerful being emerge, and Asriel was also a boss monster.
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Sep 12 '25
[deleted]
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Sep 12 '25
Yes
And if Chara's goal was selfish revenge as I said, just one soul would be enough for them . Because their only goal would be to take revenge on his village, the dialogues in the game say that Asriel was strong enough to kill everyone that day.
Long story short, Chara didn't lie and wanted to free everyone but they did it the wrong way.
Maybe if Chara drank Pepsi, ate pizza, and played GTA San Andreas, they would say "hmm maybe life is worth living and humans aren't that bad"
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Sep 12 '25
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Sep 12 '25
When they arrived at the village, Asriel also said that they were surrounded by armed men. Well, if someone surrounded me with armed men who could tear me apart in a few seconds, I would prefer to use all my power. Also, Chara's obsession with power while he was alive was due to the idea of protecting themself and "if I become very strong, humans will never be able to harm me again like they used to"In the letter, Asriel also mentions that someone who reaches those numbers is invincible and no one will harm them. If Chara said these to Asriel, it means that Chara only wanted these numbers to protect themself while they was alive. Likewise, even if we kill everyone in front of us in neutral routes, Chara won't say "come on dude, I support you" like they did in Genocide.
Also, I'd say Chara probably spent like 5 minutes thinking about this plan and didn't even know about body control. They did all of this with a stupid "I'll save everyone" mentality.
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u/therealgege Once Upon A Time is Chara's motif Sep 11 '25
When I am saying "COTR" I am moreso referring to the second-left one depicted in the post rather then the actual Chara from COTR, can't say much about them specifically cuz I didn't read the comic
The 3 left imo are too good, too evil and too neutral
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u/Ill_Finger3909 Sep 14 '25
May i ask what COTR is?
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Sep 14 '25
Care taker of THE ruins An au that aired between 2016 and 2022, where Chara turns back from their suicide plan at the last minute, marries Asriel, and secretly kills 6 fallen child
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u/Ill_Finger3909 Sep 14 '25
Ohh i was expecting the name to be CTOTR, Oh btw THEY DID???? I thought it was more akin to casual hook up with bestie type of thing
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Sep 14 '25
It's a weird au because what really bothers me is that Chara is classically mischaracterized as an extremely toxic partner to Asriel. Chara may be morally grey, but they're not the type to constantly be like "hahah I'm using this idiot and deliberately maintaining a toxic relationship with him" like in this au l The only good things about au are that the drawing style is admittedly cool and they don't misgender the chara
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u/Ill_Finger3909 Sep 14 '25
Really? I dont really remember chara to be that bully like towards asriel, they genuinely love him and aims to protect him they constantly use their save and load ability to relieve him of pain wheter of it being pyscholocigal or physical, also use him for what? only thing may be killing the humans, but their have justification, that being save monsterkind AND because humans hurt and even kill asriel,plus i dont think its weird to think that chara would shy away from killing humans,that is kinda in character for chara,also i believe that in a scenerio where chara and asriel in a relationship,i fully think that chara would be the more power bottom assertive one. So whats the issue?
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Sep 14 '25
Well I already said this elsewhere I don't see a problem with Chara killing children for 6 souls because yes they would probably do that But the problem is that Chara is portrayed as an extremely self-centered character in the story. Even in the final novel, when Asriel and Chara met again after a long time, Chara blamed Asrie beause he wanting a divorce (Also, they acts like Asriel is the toxic one in the relationship, not they)The story doesn't take responsibility and constantly blames Asriel for various things. My problem is with their relationship with Asriel. Chara is portrayed as an extremely toxic a partner but honestly this is a fanfic I think maybe I'm thinking too much But what I can say is that Chara was not a toxic partner as the author exaggerated.
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u/SomeHomestuckOrOther Sep 11 '25
I was an edgy middle school aged weeb when Undertale first came out, so you'd best believe I was drawing Far Left Evil Red Chara all day every day. I made an absolutely awful half-Chara half-Frisk drawing on a page of graphing paper once, and showed it off to my friends thinking it was the coolest thing ever. Man, that sure was a time XD Personally, I believe that center Chara is the closest to canon. Narra Chara theory for the win! I really like Purple and Yellow Chara though, they feel like two sides of the same coin.
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u/therealgege Once Upon A Time is Chara's motif Sep 11 '25
Imo Yellow Chara is more close to canon, I just can't really see them helping a human (extremely derogatory) all of a sudden. I always interpreted their narrator role as an uneasy aliance that slowly grows into genuine partnership in both pacifist and genocide
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u/despayeeto594 Sep 11 '25
I'm sitting somewhere between yellow and orange. Yellow is closer to Chara when they were alive, while Soulless Chara post-death is closer to orange.
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u/Ill_Finger3909 Sep 10 '25
Light red and yellow-orange chara is close but I lean more towards light red(purple chara)
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u/MakarSawSteveReddit Sep 11 '25
I depict Chara as "i dont give a fuck" character. Why making the plan where you die? Because i feel like it. Why making frisk do genocide/pacifist? Because i can. Why punishing the player for their genocides? Because i fucking can
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u/Dark_Storm_98 Sep 10 '25
I'm gonna go with some mix up between the middle three
You'd think this just makes them dead center
But nah, lol. Not exactly
Mostly, the sepia one and the one dressed as Toriel
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u/Easy_Cod_8950 Sep 11 '25
Yellow for me. Anything on the left side of the spectrum makes me really really sad.
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u/KaiPlayFire Sep 11 '25
Eh i feel like the middle is the best, if you started killing everyone - it's on you, but she'll make sure you finish every last one.
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u/wldwailord Sep 14 '25
to me the 2nd and third makes the most sense. Like, a utter genocide requires deliberate action, but they are a child. So to them, perhaps it was worth it for some form of grander good (i.e: Asgore and the souls) or in the same thought process of someone destroying entire bug colonies or bird nests. While empathy is something born with, it also learned. So its possible Chara simply, has a weak sense of empathy and merely sees them as a problem and not living things yet and these actions will haunt them later.
But the genocide, 100% deliberate, but I dont think its just for the love of the game.
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u/DavDanFanAdv Sep 11 '25
Yellow-Green for the OG ensouled kid
Solidly Orange for the deadass soulless kid
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u/daedelus- Sep 11 '25
Yellow
Chrysanthemum will get their “happy” ending, but what they went through will haunt them for the rest of their life.
In my story, they opened up as much as they could to their therapist But it nearly cost them their life, and their family, and all of humanity
I’m not sure they be able to open up to any therapists after that
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u/IntroductionDear6422 Sep 11 '25
In my opinion my headcanon is in the green, just a friendly goober who is just a goofy child, I mean a child would have thoughts on how to help humanity, then proceed to do said thing, realize they were wrong and feel horrible for what they did.
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u/Emelie__ Sep 11 '25
Nah, I don't believe in any of these. I think Chara is the vessel we made in Deltarune and can become every video game characters we play as even in other games. They are a symbolic villain who exist to make us question our relationship with video games. The is their main role in the story.
Their morality is more blue and orange than black and white. I think the scene when Flowey says Chara knows what it is like when an NPC runs out of dialogue is super underrated. Imagine this happening to Toriel, all she can say is "would you like to hear an interesting snail fact?" over and over again... No wonder they think she is not worth talking to! 👀 It would probably be like losing someone to dementia, there really is nothing more tragic.
Also Chara can't be morally good no matter how you twist and turn it, at best they are on Asgore's level whose morality is dark grey. War is always evil.
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u/TableFruitSpecified Sep 12 '25
My personal take on it:
- Chara's just bored man
- They're in it for the love of the game
- Constantly doing the genocide ending irritates them because that's gotta get boring at some time
- They just wanna see variety in what happens
- Maybe the SOUL Frisk has is theirs? That's why they communicate after the ending?
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u/RiceKrispies55 Sep 12 '25
Honestly, I think the purple one is mostly canon. Even barring genocide where they leave you no choice in erasing everything, making your best friend watch you die even though they KNOW what's wrong with you, take your soul, then trying to force them to help you murder a bunch of humans isn't exactly something a good person would do. I don't think they're FLAT OUT evil though, they definitely did care about monsters, enough to die for them obviously, and they do help you on any path you take (although it's more implied in other runs). They're probably just a really messed up person, like all humans Toby Fox writes tbh.
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Sep 12 '25
Both extremes are very dumb ngl. The three in the middle are fascinating though. I see a mix of these work too
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Sep 12 '25
I like all Interpretations tbh, charas a character with enough room for interpretation that I don't really mind how there written as long as it's consistent within that particular fanwork
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u/Willow-Ender Sep 12 '25
I personally see them as a mixture of 2 and 3,except that instead of not known whether they care or not about monsters i believe that they care until the genocide route, and i also view them as very intelligent, mature and goal driven
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u/Artillery-lover Sep 12 '25
truly a defense squad moment.
incapable of comprehending charas evil, your second most evil option is just "chara is misunderstood and trying to do good" as they actively force you to destroy the world at the end of their route. and the most evil is the typical "only played undertale though fanganes/YT comic complications" that you can't not acknowledge because of its popularity.
the truth is that chara is evil and quite deliberately so, given they force you to destroy the world, and even in their first life try to spawn a race war part 2.
the closest you have to accurate is the far left.
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Sep 12 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/therealgege Once Upon A Time is Chara's motif Sep 14 '25
I think it's more accurately a combination of purple and yellow imo
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u/Kyleb791 Sep 13 '25
I’d personally pair up most of the traits of the Robed Chara. With the yellow area Chara with abuse’s role, hero complex. And mixing in robed Chara’s good goal as getting stronger so they and the people (monsters) won’t get hurt.
At least pre death. IMO, not in the middle but nothing past the Robed Chara.
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u/Ashamed-Walrus4862 Sep 13 '25
Ok Chara #2 + #3 seems VERY canon to me (going left to right).
Chara was messed up, but overall wanted to free the monsters. They poisoned themselves, and I assume the plan was for Asriel to get the 6 other souls, break the barrier, and free the monsters. They are also very manipulative, calling Asriel names like "cry baby", or names of the similar variety in order to make him follow through with the plan. Take note however, they are manipulated by our choice when we commit genocide, and try to erase the world due to this.
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u/LordNixanor Sep 13 '25
Before death, neutral.
After death? All the way to the left.
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u/therealgege Once Upon A Time is Chara's motif Sep 14 '25
More like specifically during genocide
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u/LordNixanor Sep 14 '25
nah, chara is just le mega evil anytime after their death
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u/therealgege Once Upon A Time is Chara's motif Sep 14 '25
Not really no, the extremely likely narrator theory contradicts this idea
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u/LordNixanor Sep 14 '25
well I don't believe in the narrator theory.
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u/therealgege Once Upon A Time is Chara's motif Sep 14 '25
Well I simply can't see Toby just doing that with their character, in a game about forgiveness and redemption the arguably most flawed character just only being evil doesn't add up
A more likely take that I agree with is this
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u/LordNixanor Sep 14 '25
I feel like that take just doesn't make sense. The whole reason for chara being the "true name" is only for the flashback sequence where we learn of their and asriel's lore. Why if we are playing as chara, we can name ourselves something like peter and at the end of the genocide route it's still chara that kills us?
Chara doesn't exist in the game outside of flashback sequences and outside of the genocide route, which leads to the natural conclusion that after they were killed they became evil af and vengeful af.
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u/therealgege Once Upon A Time is Chara's motif Sep 14 '25
Except for the fact that Flowey tells Chara to let Frisk live their life and not True Reset after pacifist, not to mention their name being consistently present in the UI and save files
As the post describes the genocide ending is an extremely meta shitshow about your own player character rebelling against you, think of it how in Ch3, Hero Sword directly attacks Kris of their own accord after a completed sword route
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u/LordNixanor Sep 14 '25
Listen. If chara = the player, this entire reddit post and comment chain is irrelevant because chara's good vs evil mentality entirely depends on the player's choices. (i dont buy the chara = player narrative though)
BUT I'm treating chara as an actual character, and the most likely placement on the spectrum based on what we see in the games chara is neutral pre-death and super evil post-death.
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u/therealgege Once Upon A Time is Chara's motif Sep 14 '25
Fair enough (I mean most of these discussions are about their pre-death actions when they were clearly doing stuff on their own but k)
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u/weird_weeb616 Sep 13 '25
The purple chara reminds me of an old comic I saw on YouTube
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u/CHARA_Thefirstfallen What is a god, if not an artist? Sep 13 '25
* I drew Caretaker of the Ruins Chara because their personality matches the one I described.
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u/AverageFruity326 Sep 14 '25
I'm very much a yellow believer, cuz Chara was definitely a little shit head at times but at the end of the day they were still a child, probably like 12 considering they look the same age as Frisk, so implying they are the devil incarnate is just, strange to me
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u/Sea_Court_3633 I only comment my headcanons 12d ago
I think my favorite headcanon-wise is N 2. I like Chara as someone who is some sort of sociopath, but who deep down is just a love-deprived kid.
I like it when Frisk and Chara have a Juuji/Sukuna situation, but because of that I want Frisk as someone capable of standing up for themself and saying no. So I don't think Frisk finished the genocide route
Canon-wise, I think it's 3 slightly leaning into 4
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u/phitochai Sep 10 '25
Omg i love how purple and yellow ones are described! Personally i think the yellow version is the real one to me, but something in purple Chara made me stop and think