What was Chara’s plan?

passivechara:

These lines seemed out of place to me ever since I first saw them.  They feel like such a non-sequitur compared to what Flowey and Chara’s motives had been up to that point (as I understood them at the time).

Before I really analyzed these characters, I assumed that Flowey and Chara were both relentless killers (based on how Flowey acts when he isn’t Asriel in the pacifist/neutral routes and what we see of Chara on the route leading up to this moment). Why on earth would either of these people want to free the monsters at this point? Wouldn’t they just try to wipe out humanity instead? Undyne and Mettaton say as much themselves when their powered-up forms are fought.

For a while I forgot about this scene, but after reading through a whole bunch of UT analysis posts (and making a few of my own) I now realize its significance: Chara only wanted Asriel to kill six humans and come back home.

Keep in mind what Flowey has already been through by the time he says this: he already knew Chara hated humanity. He’s already tried to help Chara carry out their plan. He already went to the human village. He already heard Chara’s voice tell him to use his full power on the humans. He’s already lost his soul and become jaded by resetting hundreds of times. He’s had years to think things over. He’s already aware of the fact that the Chara standing in front of him has become every bit the power-hungry killer that he has.  And yet he still says that their plan from the beginning was to free monsters.

I hear a lot of “Chara was always evil” theories that’ll say something to the effect that Chara was lying to Asriel about collecting six souls to free the monsters and that they really just wanted to kill as many humans as possible, but if that were true then I can’t see how Flowey wouldn’t have figured this out by now. He was there. He may have been naive at the time, but he wasn’t stupid then and he certainly isn’t now.

This isn’t polite little Asriel we’re talking about–Flowey always speaks his mind without a filter and he revels in the atrocities that the player can commit. I can’t see any reason why Flowey would want to assume that Chara had the best of intentions back then when he clearly doesn’t care about any moral concerns now. The only explanation I can think of is that what Flowey is saying is true, or at least he has every reason to think it’s the truth, and he would know better than anyone except Chara themself.

Those who are critical of Chara could argue that Chara’s longterm plan was to free the monsters so that they would wage war with humanity again. I’d say this is technically possible, though the game does say that monsters no longer feared humans during Chara’s lifetime so this plan would only work if humans struck first (which could happen). However, I’d say this theory is mutually exclusive with the more-common theory that Chara knew in advance that they’d share control over Asriel’s body, and here’s why:

If Chara planned from the beginning to wield Asriel’s power and their goal was to wipe out humanity then I couldn’t see them wanting to share the “glory” with anyone else unless if they absolutely had to, especially if they were acting to satisfy their own hatred and violent impulses. A bunch of reluctant and no-longer-fearful monsters wouldn’t be of much use to a Chara who was that powerful and ruthless.

I’m not trying to sweep Chara’s sins under the rug, but rather I’m trying to put them into perspective. In life, Chara was not Flowey in human form. I’d say their offenses were more comparable to Asgore’s: on the one hand Chara’s plan to kill six humans didn’t succeed, but on the other hand they were less reluctant about it than Asgore was. One could also speculate about whether Chara only tried to kill adults and/or people who wronged them vs. Asgore killing predominantly children, but that’s a whole other topic.

Still, I don’t think hatred or revenge were the primary motivators for Chara in that situation, just a bonus, if that. Maybe Chara thought they were being pragmatic. It’s possible that Chara may have even had some reluctance to go through with the plan, but figured “If it’s seven human lives versus the future of monsterkind, then I choose monsters.” It’s still wrong, but it’s not Flowey-levels of wrong.

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(submitted by vgfm)

Another really well thought out analysis, you really make some great points here.

Flowey would definitely be the one who could provide the uncensored truth of those past events since, in the narrative, they are the one who acts as our foil for ever action we take (they share the “it’s only a game” mindset with the player.) Every use and abuse of the Save File and Reset ability is commented on by Flowey who will question our motivations, and makes every decision we make have some form of consequence.

Flowey also seems to be more in tuned with the “truth” than when he is Asriel, not in the “it’s kill or be killed” sense, but in how the meta of his world works.

After all it is Flowey not Asriel who delivers the final speech, addressed to Chara/Named Human, requesting that they “let Frisk go” and to not Reset everything again. (Whereas Asriel talked to Frisk like Chara wasn’t still present in some abstract way, he believed them to be “long gone”)