Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-5478889-20161028210932

Okay before someone says something, no you do not literally become Flowey.

But when you erase the world, and you have to give up your SOUL to go back into the game, the protagonist becomes (in every way besides physical) everything that Flowey is, was, and stands for.

Without their SOUL, the protagonist becomes a compassionless, cold experimentor who 'plays the game' out of curiosity to see how the characters react to your interactions with them. It doesn't matter if you the player are still loving and enjoying the cast of characters in Undertale; the character you play has effectively become Flowey incarnate. The protagonist is no longer motivated by compassion, but by "a perverted sentimentality" as the fallen human would put it. The possibibility of a truly happy ending is gone. The only options left are to kill everyone yet again, erase the world once more, or explore the different possible endings by killing this character and sparing that one to see how the game ends. Flowey's monologue when the player wanders the New Home accurately sums up the state of being for the SOUL-less post-Genocide protagonist.

The difference between you and Flowey? You are powerless to regain your SOUL. There is no protagonist to save you from yourself, the way a player with an untainted game saves Asriel during a True Pacifist playthrough, reigniting the compassion in the souls he's stolen and bringing him back to his former self so that he can truly do good once again.

When you lose your SOUL, there is no getting one back.

Flowey makes sure that you never get the chance.

Before you play a Genocide run just because you can or just because you're curious, consider how much you really care about the ending(s) you've already gotten, or the possibility of a truly happy ending. Consider how comfortable you would be playing as a heartless, SOUL-less "human" protagonist if you ever decided to bring the world back. (Considering the alternative, it might be better to leave the world erased.)

If you complete a Genocide run, you have to be comfortable with tainting the game's happy ending, and you have to be comfortable with being a fleshy, walking, breathing embodiment of Flowey the Flower for the rest of your cold, empty gameplay hours. That's what your signing up for.

If you've already completed a Genocide run and erased the world... well, I'm glad I'm not in your shoes. 