Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-31371445-20170222233857/@comment-31536324-20180704185006

"Your dominant trait, what you have the most of, is what determines your color. If you're 40% Kind, 30% Determined, 25% Brave, and 5% Justice, kindness is your trait."

This is what I was saying before in my original responses. Souls naturally have all traits due to being, as quoted by Flowey, "the culmination of your very being", and the color of the soul is representative of your most prominent and dominant trait.

Why I think red is determination is because not only is it what Frisk is most associated with throughout the whole game, but also due to the feats done in the game.

Pacifist: You LITERALLY refuse death itself, and as proven by TheHumanAmbassador, KEEP the S/L/R ability from Asriel despite him practically becoming a god with the power of 7 SOULS. (Regardless of why it happened the way it happened, CLOSEing the game is a canonical way to reset/load due to it being recognized as such, and you CAN do it in the Asriel fight, but not the Photoshop Flowey fight.)

Genocide: You destroy the world and, well, commit genocide. Nothing much more to say here, other than that Chara explicitly states that the SOUL and Determination used to do so were not theirs, but Frisk.

Neutral: You managed to reach and get past Asgore, something the other fallen humans - presumably, given that we find their items at various places in the Underground - didn't reach or make it past.

It does make sense for the other colored souls to have determination, because not only does everyone have DT, but everyone also has all of the other traits. When you think about it, each trait needs DT, granted in some reasonable varying quantity (if you think about it, each trait would only really need so much DT in relation to the other), but they need it all the same.

Determination on the other hand would need all other traits in some form; I say this because the Genocide route exist and excluding that is rather counterproductive and cowardly - no offense meant.

Perseverance: Diligence to/for ones work.

Integrity: Honesty and moral uprightness.

Patience: Willingness to be calm in discomfort.

Kindness: Caring and compassionate behavior to others.

Justice: Willingness to do right for the greater good.

Bravery: Willingness to confront and face against fear and discomfort.

Determination: The will to live. (And achieve ones goals, given that the goals of the Pacifist and Genocide routes are to free the monsters and kill all monsters respectively; the real life definition isn't exactly ruled out completely, whether or not your going for just a pure canon interpretation or meta one.)

I'm going purely by what the game gives us, and by what we find in the game itself.