The Ghosts of Undertale's Narrative

It's back to the infinite well of Toby Fox content again folks, and boy is it a big one this time around. With Undertale celebrating its 9th anniversary recently, I decided it was only appropriate for me to do something to celebrate. As it turns out, I did manage to think of something, even if it is a little… obtuse, we’ll say. Regardless, I think you’ll find something interesting here. Enjoy!=========================================
Twitter: vivat_veritas
Music used:
Welcome to the World of Pokémon! – Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Sky
THE HOLY – DELTARUNE
Memory – UNDERTALE
Reunited – UNDERTALE
Waterfall – UNDERTALE
Here We Are – UNDERTALE
Home – UNDERTALE
An Ending – UNDERTALE
Respite – UNDERTALE
The Dark Truth – DELTARUNE
Undertale – UNDERTALE
Snowy – UNDERTALE
It Can’t Be… - Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Sky
You Can Always Come Home – DELTARUNE
It’s Raining Somewhere Else – UNDERTALE
His Theme – UNDERTALE
Emotion – Pokémon Black and White
Undella Town – Pokémon Black and White

[shadowofroserade]

I could go on a whole rant about these two (and I will soon enough), but for now, I'll just leave you all with a short excerpt from my chara video:

ahem.

"These fucking children are going to be the death of me i swear to Dog."

[snarlinger]

I really like the idea that we conjure the ghosts of these characters over the course of the story. For Chara in particular, it sheds insight into why they act the way they do at the end of No Mercy. They aren't strictly "Chara" in that moment -- rather, they embody the shadow that Chara's death casts over the story.

[andrew_cunningham]

Beautiful video Viv. I remember you telling me you were a bit intimidated to wade into Chara analysis, but the way I see it this is the only way Chara analysis really gets done. Outside of the broad strokes, they're too convoluted and contradictory a character to decisively solve with one interpretation, and the way to make sense of them is to piece together all these different viewpoints. Analyzing Chara as symbolic of violence without veering into early-fandom-nochoco-type dark evil demon child nonsense is always a fine line to walk, and I like your approach here, noting that even though Asriel and Chara symbolize a sort of dichotomy between mercy and violence, _both sides_ of that dichotomy were still rooted in the same good intentions. "Love", as you put it.

I have the perspective that all violence in Undertale (with the exception of Mettaton, who'd just a dick I guess) falls into one of two categories: 1) Metacommentary on the pseudo-psychopathic mindset through which players interact with video games, and 2) people justifying cruel actions with noble intentions. Outside of case 1, I don't believe Undertale ever seriously intended to convey the highly redundant message that "killing people for no reason is bad". It's stance on real violence, at least within its own story, actually seems to be much stronger and harder to swallow: "killing people for _good reasons_ is also bad". This is the type of violence that Chara, in life, stood for. Not sadism, but a sort of grim pragmatism. Open-mindedness toward cruelty, when useful. The type of mindset that, say, might drive people to write long reddit posts complaining that Undertale is bullshit because all Frisk's killing was in self defence and would be legal in the state of Texas, etc.

I could go on, but I'm only getting farther from the topic of the video the longer I write. Suffice to say, I liked the video.

[Dmgladiator]

1:10 You know you're too deep in the deltarune fandom when you dont even question the fact Woody is here for a second you just *know*

[n_nolace]

where's that tumblr post that's like
hauntological ghosts in the narrative in undertale:
- the dead children who haunt the narrative

not ghosts in the narrative of undertale:
- actual ghosts

(anyway - great video as always! you deserve so many more views within the UT/DR analysis-sphere IMO)

[oliversearles]

Excellent points about grief and learning to let go at the end. But what breaks my heart is that asriels fate, even in the true pascifist is to be left a souless flower forever. Is that hug supposed to fuel him for the indefinet future? We dont even know how long its been for him over his many resets. He lost his soul and dissociated for years, centuries until the events of the game, he gets the power of god and his emotions back for 20 minutes and had to give them back. Thats it. The kicker is that he died in what many would think noble by choosing not to kill humans. Chara was the one who goated him into the plan that he didnt want to do. Also THEY ARE KIDS. Their mistake have so many ripples throughout the underground but even so the eternal punishment feels so horribly unfair. Everyone gets a happy ending besides asriel and chara, neither can be saved. Im glad your video talks about this haunting void that some almost gloss over. I was expecting deltarune and you hit me with this this thematic masterpiece. Great job!

[Turtleboilol]

Something that makes me interested is that Asriel and Chara act quite like their parents respectively.

Asriel is like Asgore because of his similar attacks, similar personality, and etc. (He has some of Toriel’s attacks too.)

Chara slightly acts like Toriel due to them having a large vocabulary and testing the player’s morality. (If the Narrator-Chara theory was true, this part would make more sense.)


I have commented this on a few videos, but I feel like it could be more talked about.

[arcaneScribbler]

As a full narraChara believer, this video gets even more awesome. I think another point to this 'demon' version of Chara in the No Mercy run is that there is a second point to their philosophy that they're also cementing through it, that in True Pacifist they're able to let go of: that mistakes are forever. The buttercup incident. Completing No Mercy. They couldn't go back from that, and they won't let you go back from what you've done, either. Chara, Undyne the Undying, Sans... the themes carry through, in many ways. Conversely in True Pacifist you have characters moving on. Toriel finally leaves the Ruins. Sans cheers you on and lets go of whatever ties him to that shed in Snowdin to experience the surface. Papyrus sees the sun, gains friends, and is even looked up to by characters like Monster Kid. Asgore lets go of his murder-suicide crusade. Mettaton EX no longer runs from his past. Muffet re-examines her own biases. And most telling of all- Asriel and Alphys' storylines are mirrors. All about not letting one mistake, no matter how big it is or seems, consume your life forever. And I like to think, that in True Pacifist, Chara learns this, too, instead of hollowing out into a LOVE-driven shell of a remnant whose truest, most visible act of agency is to violently cut you out of the world, rather than partner with you to provide information on it as I believe narraChara does.

[greenhydra]

"Asriel's little flowery journey has kind of f*cked him up."
Me explaining why the cinnamon roll is now a serial killer.

[loganjohnson]

One thing I think is worth mentioning about Undead Chara is that when Flowey first gets scared of them at the end of the no mercy run he nervously asks if they have any hard feelings about “back than” while that could be Flowey jumping to conclusions he says that in reaction to Chara making their creepy face at him, and since Undertale does use characters reacting to the protagonist’s face to tell the audience what they’re feeling, (Sans) I do think it’s possible that Chara killed Flowey not just because of their philosophy, but also because of a grudge.

[doommustard]

I don't interpret Chara as a single charater. Every route you take through the game presents them differently with different personality. They are 3 characters.

In the neutral route, they live, they laugh, they move on tragically, but aren't forgotten by the monsters whose lives they touched.

In the pacifist route, new context is added that implies they did everything they could trying to save monsterkind, even sacrificing their life in the underground in order to ensure their friends could be happy.

Then in the genocide route, even more context is added which changes their sacrifice into a manipulative play for power. They are now presented as someone who doesn't truly care about their friends, only pretending to do so.

No matter which route you are in, they are presented in the same way that the monsters see you.

What's interesting is the way this is done through adding context to the story, so once you do the manipulative murder route, that's it. chara is always going to be a murderer doing the things they do as part of a twisted manipulative game.

But for those who didn't do that route, chara is not. They are still a reflection of the player who stopped playing at whatever route they stopped at.

[goomylife]

This is an incredibly beautiful video. I always cherish any content that can make me see Undertale in a new light, since it's a game that I've obsessed over for 9 years. You have such an eloquent way of putting ideas together that can only be described as a talent

[infizer]

I screamed when I saw this notif, one of my favorite UTDR channels talking about Asriel and Chara haunting the narrative?? I couldn't ask for more.
Also thank you for actually understanding Chara 🙏 I'm always wary when they get brought up cuz it's very easy to misunderstand them. Thanks specifically for pointing out that Chara isn't obsessed with murder, just with increasing stats and murder is how you do that in Undertale. If you increased stats by farming then Chara would be obsessed with farming lol

[LegendofLink]

I know that digging into material from outside the games itself muddies the point, but I still absolutely adore the letter/poem from Asriel at the end of the 9th Anniversary newsletter for the context it adds to this topic. It grounds Chara and Asriel's differing "completionist" philosophies in something relatable and sympathetic. Chara saw power as a shield as much as a weapon, if not more so. If you reached "the absolute, " because the strongest that was it was possible to become, nothing would ever hurt you or those your cared about ever again. But Asriel sees "the absolute" as "the end" and never wants anything good to end. Both views are perfectly reasonable conclusions for children to reach, especially with what's implied about the reasons Chara climbed Mt. Ebott in the first place. It's only the extreme and traumatic nature of their deaths and the loss of their souls that twists their childhood ideals into philosophies of violence.

[misadique]

"I'm the first 'me' to do it"

Are you sure about that? Maybe there's a universe where both you and Toby Fox were born 10 years earlier and you made this video in 2014...

[ArcaneOblivion]

Amazing, per usual.
I really liked the last part on remembrance. That was very touching.

[Xmanwashere]

8:10 this is barely relevant but I just now realized asriels eyes are closed in this frame. For the first time. After 8-9 years in this fandom

[narrowstairs]

yet another certified Vivat Veritas Banger 💯 this is such a great topic to tackle and you did an awesome job :) i love the narrative ambiguity that can come from your only knowledge about someone coming from others’ descriptions/reactions. such an interesting lens with which to look at the way we (sometimes inadvertently) reflect onto those around us in our communities and lives

[Quinhala]

Napstablook Mettaton Mad Mew Mew Ruins Dummy

[RedStarPSO]

You did it. You actually did it. You said something new about Undertale. You absolute Chad