Proof that Chara can’t be diagnosed as a psycopath/sociopath
* Note that this isn’t an attack on mentally ill people of any sort, but a response to a specific post trying to diagnose Chara as such without the context of the following information…and for the people who are applying these terms to them in a very casual and unflattering way.
hey can the person who keeps coming to this post with a proxy please just inbox me with what your beef with this post is? anon is on and you’ve already got a proxy, and you’re scaring me a little bit.
Sociopaths are known for difficulty with empathy, and for having a “grandiose sense of self worth” (thinking they’re cool as beans on eggs). Psychopaths are known for similar things:
lack of empathy, etc. So two big things here: Lack of empathy, overinflated sense of self worth.
Can Chara feel empathy?
Okay, note that we aren’t talking about No-mercy Chara yet. We’ll get there. But here’s how they were in life.
Yes, yes they could. According to Flowey/Asriel: “You’re the only one who understands me.” Flowey hasn’t “said it before” in No-Mercy: he’s talking about in life. He told them this in life.
Chara can understand the feelings of others. And particularly well. The very definition of empathy.
Did Chara have an overinflated ego, as sociopaths are defined to have?
Flowey himself says Chara tried to erase themselves from existence. They climbed a mountain people disappear from. Flowey himself says Chara tried to commit suicide, and we he himself “decided it wasn’t worth living anymore” he tried to “follow in their footsteps”.
So, no. They did not have a grandiose sense of self-worth. They were massively suicidal.
Could Chara show emotion, as psychopaths often can’t?
Yes. Asgore saw a look of hope in their eyes. A display of emotion, a positive one.
Could Chara display affection?
Gave Asriel a locket.
Hand-knitted a sweater for a goat the size of a truck, must have taken weeks or months. (Note that they show no reaction to the santa claus outfit other than to say it’s “not useful”; they’re reacting to the sweater because they made it and and they’re surprised he still has it)
Laughed at pain?
There’s a clear parallel from Snowy’s mother and Snowy’s father to these lines. They don’t say “But you don’t think it’s funny”. They say “But it’s not funny”. They don’t think it’s funny…and laugh with tears coming down their face. It looks like a major stress reaction…by the way, if you search “Ha ha” in the code strings, a disturbing amount of characters laugh while dying or in distress.
In No-Mercy:
How do they feel about people doing whatever they want?
They want to hold you accountable…which they do, if you try to do pacifist after killing everyone.
In No-Mercy:
They don’t have a soul.
They could understand feelings during life (”anymore”). That’s proven. But there’s no “SAVE” button for Chara, so they can’t understand a sold soul, as with Photoshop Flowey and his 6 human souls. You have to SAVE.
Like Flowey, they were born back without a soul. The no-mercy route is not a reflection of how they were in life any more than Flowey is of Asriel, and, lacking a SAVE button, we can’t fix this, soul or not.
Even so, somehow they feel something upon seeing the smiling picture frame…
…rather than just saying “nothing useful” like they do for so many things in that route, it gives them real pause.
Flowey is concerned that Chara is worried about the surface at the end of Pacifist.
…and talks about them fighting the power to reset (possibly in life?)
Note that you aren’t supposed to named the kid after yourself, you just can “if you can’t think of anything else.” That tweet is taken out of context.
And that face is not of someone talking to a stranger. He’s talking to Chara, using the same name he always has.
So there it is. The required traits for a sociopath/psychopath are absent in Chara while they were alive.
They could feel empathy, display emotions (of hope, at that), show affection, and did not have a grandiose sense of self-worth but rather were suicidal and wished to “erase themselves from existence”.
And then they’re reborn soulless and use your “guidance” to figure out what to do.
Guide them well, they get the speech from Flowey. Guide them badly, they erase the world. There are no inevitabilities for soulless people in Undertale, only possibilities that weren’t in them in life. You can bring Flowey back from this, and prevent Chara from ever getting there.
it's called lying. psychopaths can read emotion flawlessly. they just can't feel it. ever. that thing played asriel and you like a fiddle., and you being an enabler singlehandedly doomed eveyrone. sleep tight, because things like chara are real. and things like you are why they ALWAYS succeed.
