Board Thread:Wiki Discussion/@comment-26432906-20170101004248/@comment-27701762-20170101020841

While there will always be plenty of debate on this issue, given that there is no specific statement that "X is the exact name of the trait that belongs to the Red soul," so far determination is the best guess we have on the subject. Given how important determination is to the story, how often the various characters and the game's narration bring up the protagonist's determination, and how determination is also strongly linked to Chara (the other human with a Red soul), the game as a whole strongly suggests that the Red soul's trait is determination.

There are certainly legitimate criticisms of the claim, but these criticisms themselves often have their own weaknesses. For example, the claim that determination can't be the trait specific to the Red soul, as determination is extracted from all of the human souls. While the latter half of the statement is true, the former claims does not logically follow, as it is not presumed that the traits of each soul are exclusive to that soul. Perseverence, for instance, is not only found in the Purple soul, nor kindness in the Green soul. Instead, they are simply the types of souls that are characterized by that trait, meaning potentially it is the dominant trait among all others. Such a description is entirely consistent with determination being the trait of the Red soul: it does not mean that no other soul is able to have determination, but that the Red soul essentially has more of it than the others.

In fact, describing the Red soul as having determination as its dominant trait helps to explain how the protagonist makes it so much farther through the Underground. Since all humans have the ability to save, none of them should ever die, since they can just reload back to their save files. And we also know they have the ability to save, since Toriel mentions the feeling of deja vu that comes with re-experiencing events that the protagonist saves and redoes. So there's a potential hole. But determination provides one explanation (though not the only explanation) for how to solve this problem. If the Red soul has significantly more determination than other souls, then the protagonist can be understood to have more control over the save function than the others: the other humans had a limited ability to save, but perhaps could only do so for a certain amount of time, a certain number of times, or could not reload if they died. Positing that determination is the trait of the Red soul helps to make the game make sense.

The specific theory posted, which posits that "being yourself" is the trait of the Red soul, certainly makes some sense on its face. But there are important holes in that theory. First, it uses "being yourself" as the trait, given the text from the Ball Game, but it must be noted that no other trait description from the Ball Game actually uses the name of the trait in question. So the description must be taken as a general description of what the trait means, though even then it is not a perfect description, given some of the other descriptions.

In turn, if we are to apply a term to the idea of "being yourself," we should expect that term to show up at some point in the game and attribute that term to the protagonist. But corresponding ideas of "individuality," "sincerity," or "nonconformity" do not show up in the game. The phrase "sincerely" shows up a fair number of times, but any links between the term and the protagonist are incredibly weak, in comparison with determination which is constantly attached not just to humans in general, but to the protagonist specifically.

Instead, the phrase "continuing to be yourself" does not need to be a descriptor for something other than determination. Given that determination in general involves a sort of firmness or resoluteness, it too can be described as a sort of "continuing to do things in spite of other things," which is essentially the model for the description from the red flag in Ball Game. Nor is there any need to differentiate the idea of "being yourself" from "doing what's in your heart" (which is the statement that Sans gives in one of his judgments, and which appears to be tied to determination).

I could provide more, but I'm not sure it's needed at this time. Regardless, I see no issue with leaving the listed trait as determination with a "Citation needed" marker. It is not, in fact, a "guess with no source," but has plenty of evidence to support it and appears to be what the game is suggesting is the unique trait that belongs to Frisk and Chara (thus meaning it isn't a "guess"). That said, the admins may have a different idea about how to deal with the issue.