Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-27827802-20160219134059

So I've been thinking about this for a while, and I have a new perspective on the Flowey/Asriel issue. What if Flowey and Asriel were considered to be two seperate entities, rather than one and the same?

I know many of you immediately recoiled at the thought, but I have good reason to believe that these two characters should be treated seperately. First and most importantly, Flowey does not have Asriel's soul. This is so important because for monsters their entire being is their soul. Flowey does not have Asriel's soul but instead has his essence. Asriel's soul is long gone by the time Flowey is created by Alphys. The fact that the game distinguishes between the two must mean that they must different in some measurable way. Assuming a monster's soul is at least almost their entire being, as monsters don't have much of a physical form, then what makes up essence? As Flowey is the only character that has essence, but not soul, and the only in game lore about essence is in the Snowden Library, we don't have much data on the nature of essence. However, you could easily prove that essence might be a monster's memories. Flowey does clearly demonstrate detailed and accurate knowledge about Asriel's life.

So then the question is, if Flowey is different from Asriel, then why does he pick Asriel's form at the end of the Pacifist route? That could be explained by Flowey having Asriel's memories from the very beginning of his life. That is, all he knows prior to him waking up in the garden is what Asriel knows, so Asriel's form is the one that he attaches to as being his "true" form, because that is the only form that he knows prior to him becoming a flower.

Additionally, before someone suggests that memories are what make the person who they are, I think that this game ultimately nullifies that by having the monster's soul be almost their entire being. While that argument could be positied from a philosophical standpoint in real life, I don't believe that it applies properly here.

The emotions expressed by Flowey after The God of Hyperdeath is defeated could be expained by Flowey feeling the emotions that the other monsters have towards Frisk, since prior to this fight he was not able to feel things like love due to his lack of a soul. Also, when the player uses "SAVE" on Asriel, the player could be calling on Flowey to remember again about the good that Asriel did, and compare what he's doing at that moment to Asriel's ultimate act of kindness, which makes him realize what a horrible thing he's attempting to do, instead of calling out to Asriel himself.

I'm curious to hear other's thoughts on this theory, and am looking forward to the ensuing discussion. 