Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26006155-20181123023529/@comment-26006155-20181123154550

The Undertale library also says that Compassion is something that exists in a soul.

And Flowey makes the strange point of twice mentioning that the specific emotion he can't experience, while still capable of experiencing all the others, is Compassion. Something Boss Monster Kid Asriel was famous for having. Flowey feels that an essential part of himself is missing, and doesn't know why.

Actually, Ambasador, you kind of helped my theory right then. The game makes a point of saying Chara and Asriel combined their souls together.

And in order to reach into Asriels' Soul to find the others.. Asriel has to have a soul you can reach into. Which means his belief that he doesn't have a soul of his own is totally gone now.

The exact nature of souls combining is open for debate. Photoshop Flowey is a bit like a Steven Universe fusion, where each being in the fusion has its own gem core that can still be seperated later, and can rebell and leave the fusion if given enough reason to. Flowey may have combined his soul with the six human souls, but that doesn't mean this is permanent.

And if Flowey still had Asriels' monster soul, he's still be able to feel compassion. Lots of it.

The entire reason for Gerson's endgame dialog is to show that a boss monster kid gains soul energy from their parents over time. Which is a way Asriel can recharge the monster soul that he lost.