YMMV / The Caretaker of the Ruins

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Is Chara a Noble Demon who deep down knows that their actions are wrong, but has been so utterly broken by the world on the surface that they started to believe in Utopia Justifies the Means and think that the only way to make up for humanities' crimes is to eradicate it, including themselves, and give their world to a species more deserving of it? Or are they merely a selfish, hypocritical Jerkass who wants to see their revenge fantasies against humanity fulfilled, no matter the cost?
  • Is Asriel the victim of an abusive relationship that he has no chance of getting out of or improving, thanks to his spouse's time-travelling-powers and general emotional hold on him? Or is he a selfish coward who knows more than he lets on, but actively chooses to do nothing with that knowledge because he is too much of a Yes-Man to actually oppose Chara?
• Awesome Art: The art is very good, definitely one of the best looking Undertale fan comics out there.
• Cargo Ship: Chara x Spikes and/or Chara x Books. The Ruins they frequent so much are practically 60 % spikes and they're shown reading a lot in official art. Naturally fans couldn't just ignore this perfect set-up.
• Catharsis Factor:
  • Admit it: However brief and fleeting it may have been, the Dreemurrs finally seeing what a monster Chara is after they kill Frisk in front of them in Chapter 06 and almost immediately disowning them is a joy to read after all the crap they pulled over the course of the story. Especially Asriel's breaking up with them in Chapter 07. While it is soured a bit by the knowledge that Chara will inevitably weasel themselves out of the situation yet again as soon as Frisk reloads, seeing them finally being forced to deal with the consequences of their actions is great all the same.
  • Asriel giving Chara a gentle, but much needed "The Reason You Suck" Speech in Chapter 11 and breaking up with them for real afterwards. It's a hard scene to read through, but in the end it really brings across how much better off both Asriel and Chara are without their unhealthy, co-dependent marriage.
• Draco in Leather Pants: It's common joke for fans to justify all of Chara's actions, no matter how clearly malicious they are. Similarly, they try to claim that Frisk is actually evil for acting in self-defense or even more innocent actions.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • At first, the moment where a seemingly unaware Chara pulls their hand away when Frisk attempts to hold it holds humor. After Chara drops the act and actively tries (and succeeds in) killing Frisk, it's possible Chara was very aware of what Frisk was trying to do. Official Ko-fi art shows Frisk eventually succeeding and Chara looking very displeased with the situation.
  • Asriel nervously clasping his scarred arm while suggesting to tie Frisk up so they won't be able to try anything becomes much more of a Tear Jerker after Interlude: Bravery, in which it's revealed that Asriel's scar is the result of him taking a hit from a fallen human, meant for Chara. Especially after the revelation that Chara intentionally didn't reload after he was injured, in order to instill a fear and distrust of humans in him and make him more obedient.
• It Was His Sled: Chara is the main antagonist and out to get Frisk's soul. Though if you're at all familiar with Undertale fan-comics, this reveal was probably more of a matter of "when" than "if" to you.
• Jerkass Woobie: Chara, to some extent. They do a lot of horrible things in the story, but you get the sense that they convinced themselves there is no other way. They also really do seem to care about Asriel, being fiercely protective of him and being heartbroken whenever something happens to him. In Chapter 07 they're devastated when he breaks up with them.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "Frisk is evil!" ^Explanation As detailed in the Draco In Leatherpants entry above, it's a running gag among fans to pretend that Frisk was actually Evil All Along and that all of Chara's heinous actions towards them were completely justified.
  • Frisk hates spikes. ^Explanation Chapter 01 has Frisk suffer a Cruel and Unusual Death via the Ruins' Spikes of Doom two times. This resulted in fans joking about how spikes must be a Berserk Button to them now. Minty and Eruto played along with that idea with, among other things, a Christmas comic in which Frisk shows annoyance at Chara gifting them a spike and a joke comic in which Frisk flies into a rage upon seeing a fork on their side of the table.
  • Chara really loves spikes/books. ^Explanation As opposed to Frisk's memetically exaggerated hatred of spikes, fans also like to joke that Chara may love spikes just a little too much, what with deadly spike puzzles taking up the majority of the Ruins and them giving Frisk a spike as a gift in a Christmas comic. As Chara is also frequently seen reading in official art, it didn't take long before the meme began to expand to books as well.
  • The Beardtaker of the Ruins ^ExplanationBased on a fan's submission of their own Alternate Universe of Caretaker, in which everything is the same, except Chara now has a luscious beard. A lot of other readers and even the creators themselves have jumped onto the bandwagon, expanding the AU to every character having some sort of magnificent-looking facial hair (except for Asgore, who is a clean-shaver).
  • The Breadtaker of the Ruins ^ExplanationA fan accidentally misspelled "Beardtaker" as "Breadtaker" when submitting a Beardtaker-edit. They decided to just roll with it. As with Beardtaker before, both the creators themselves and other fans took to the premise almost immediately due to its sheer ridiculousness, resulting in an entirely new joke-AU, in which everything in Caretaker now revolves around bread and other baked goods.
  • The Barataker of the Ruins ^Explanation Yet another Alternate Universe introduced by a fan submission in which Chara is laughably buff. To no one's surprise, it often gets crossed over with "Beardtaker".
• Never Live It Down: Frisk has fallen victim to spike traps twice in Chapter 01. Ever since then, fans have declared spikes to be their definitive Berserk Button and come up with ridiculous scenarios in which said button is somehow pressed.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: This version of Chara initially befriends Frisk, but they soon put the human child through a horrific amount of physical and mental trauma. After a point, Chara's actions start to come across as being unnecessarily cruel and petty, constantly sneering at Frisk and going out of their way to insult and berate them. Asriel, Toriel and Asgore are all as kind as they were in canon, but they are rather oblivious to Chara's true nature. With the slow story pace and the numerous side chapters that reveal Chara's manipulative side, it can be difficult to get invested in the story.
• The Woobie:
  • Frisk is twelve years old and has died multiple painful deaths over the course of the story. What's more, in their list of likes it's mentioned that they like impressing others (and it used to say they like positive feedback), which implies that they were seeking Chara's approval before Chara suddenly started trying to kill them. This is further exacerbated by the reveal of their Dark and Troubled Past.
  • All of the fallen humans after Chara and before Frisk. Almost all of them came to Mt. Ebbott because of a Dark and Troubled Past and were unceremoniously killed off with none of their families on the surface ever finding out what became of them.
    • Patience fell into the mountain after their mother abandoned them and died of internal bleeding shortly after. To make things worse, their soul was lost in an experiment later on, making their death All for Nothing and prompting Chara's Start of Darkness.
    • Bravery only wanted to prove to their siblings that they were brave enough to accompany them on trick-or-treating and while they did kill Asriel (as well as a random monster) after their fall it was more out of a mixture of self-defense and ignorance than any genuine malice. Chara brutally kills them twice, once after they kill Asriel and once after they accidentally scar him while trying to fight back against Chara.
    • Integrity was a kidnapping victim who was forced to flee from their own father after he attempted to abduct them from the studio they were training ballet in. The fall into Mt. Ebbott broke their arm and they ended up putting all their trust into a person who ultimately lead them to their demise.
    • Perseverance merely wished to study the monsters living under Mt. Ebbott and ended up going through a gruesome Ground Hog Day Loop, dying over and over again to the traps in the Ruins. Although they make a valiant effort to escape Chara, in the end they're stabbed to death with their murderer even cruelly mocking them after the fact.
    • Kindness was the first human after Chara to manage to make a friend among the monsters, after a monster child took care of their injured leg. Not only did Chara do everything in their power to break this friendship apart by scaring the monster child with horror stories about the previous fallen humans, they also didn't even try to put up a facade of affability, treating Kindness with contempt from the moment they met and ultimately killing them while fooling them into believing they were helping them to get home. Right before they were killed, Kindness states that they believe Chara is a good person deep down. To add to that, it’s implied in them and Justice’s shared backstory, that their parents forced them to tell them about how they were dating (or maybe just that they were gay) and did not approve of that at all.
    • Justice doubles as an Iron Woobie. They saw their best friend, possibly even girlfriend, get killed and were forced to fight a hopeless battle for their life against an immortal murderer who not only mocked them for fighting back, but in the end killed them with their own gun just to pour salt into the wound.
  • Asriel genuinely tries to be a good husband and friend to Chara, but they rarely, if ever, put the same amount of understanding and effort into their relationship as he does. The result is an often pretty abusive dynamic in which Asriel is regularly driven to tears and feels like he has to justify and explain just about everything he does to Chara.

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