So, there’s been a bunch of fighting in the Fandom recently over whether or not it is OK to portray Frisk and Chara as a binary gender. I prefer my blog conflict free, but I feel strongly about this so I’m going to weigh in as briefly as I can manage.
Frisk and Chara are canonically nonbinary. I’m not going to argue this. @saveloadreset already has. 1.2.
Now, I think it is everyone’s right to enjoy a work of fiction in their own way. If that means writing a genderbent AU, then so be it. I may not be interested in it, but that just means I won’t read it. The existence of an AU that breaks from the canon doesn’t harm the canon or the original experience.
Please, consider the lessons taught in Undertale. Show some mercy to these creators and let them be.
That being said, nonbinary characters are EXCEEDINGLY RARE. And to a nonbinary individual seeking representation, inclusion in the fandom is of deep importance.
So if you are planning a fanwork, before you start slapping binary pronouns onto nonbinary characters, I would ask that you please consider why you are doing this. Is it necessary? Or are you just doing it because you can?
And if you have the power to make something inclusive, if you have to go out of your way not to, don’t you think you have a responsibility to do the right thing?
Y’see, normally headcanons are fine. It’s when a character is canonically a part of a minority, and someone has a “headcanon” to take them out of that minority group, that there is a problem. It takes away representation, which NB folks especially don’t get a lot of in media. And especially in this case, someone calling Frisk or Chara a boy or girl sends the message to everyone who sees it, “if someone goes by they/them pronouns, it’s perfectly okay for you to disregard that and use he/him or she/her pronouns for them instead”.
I’ve talked about the ‘chara’ sprites before, if briefly. Long story short, there are a set of sprites in the game called ‘Chara.’ Frisk’s called ‘Mainchara,’ the Chara we see at the end of the Kill-all is called ‘truechara’, but what is a little more nebulous is the existence of another set of sprites, these sprites, which are all called simply ‘chara.’
I once said that there was a lot to talk about here, but that that was not the time to dig into what these sprites are, or what they could or could not represent. And I stand by that, it wasn’t the time.
Now. Now is the time. This post is long, and there’s a lot of datamining stuff in here, so click at your own risk.
An argument I’d like to work through at some point, when I can think how best to present it:
All three routes are the result of three entities working in concert: Frisk, Chara, and the Player. No route is possible without all three contributing in some way. However, the Pacifist Route “belongs” to Frisk, the No Mercy Route “belongs” to the Player, and the Neutral routes “belong” to Chara, based on who is acknowledged to be present and how.
honestly just really like undertale 