UT/DR human SOULs headcanons (with pictures)!
I was thinking about what my thoughts of them were gonna be, and decided to make a post! But I guess I need to start from what Determination (DT) is!
See, at first, I made a mistake assuming that red SOUL trait was called DT as well, as it was wildly popular headcanon. This is what interacting with the fandom before playing the game gets you… But I searched all over the game, and didn’t find any other hint besides Frisk having ‘the most of DT’. Word Determination however, is written in golden text, SAVE points are golden too. Meanwhile, snow ball game doesn’t even name the red trait, only suggests that Frisk has it because of their ability to show other six in the right situation.
So basically, I headcanon them as different things! DT is the power to deceive death (whether you are avoiding it yourself, or accidentally raise ‘not a nice person’ from the grave…), but red trait is ‘being able to still stay yourself no matter what happens. You can stand against adversity - the game suggests that ‘it’s still you’ if you don’t become all too evil. Sinse red trait did not have actual name…
I decided that it shouldn’t have one name, then! This trait will be known as humanity for humans and monsterity for monsters. I like to think that Chara’s red SOUL came from the fact that whatever pain humans they knew put on them, they didn’t bend and instead just cursed their entire kind and helped themselves out of it. Kris wanted to stay their quiet, weird kid self so much that they tore their SOUL out when they realized it’s moving… also a very willing move.
Perseverance is aligned with not giving up, too! The difference is, purple trait is when you will face any challenges and changes you have to in order to survive, but red trait is when you refuse to bend abandon your ideals, even if it MIGHT end you… But if you are THAT cool - your SOUL is not only immortal, but can reverse death! Works for bad humans too - are you ‘still yourself’ because you refused to let the world ruin you, or because you turned down every single chance to redemption and stayed bad?
And seven’th flower in Asgore’s basement being golden and not red? I think that represents just how hard it is to achieve the red trait!
I also personally believe that human SOULs can come in any color thinkable! EXCEPT for pink/magenta… It would feel strange for me if human SOULs had classification other than ‘just a human SOUL!’, even though 7 pure rainbow traits are good umbrella terms for most virtues that aren’t intellectual or talent ones. Green human is not ‘a human with SOUL of kindness’, it is ‘a kind human with a SOUL of a human’! Basically, if it has a color - it is a human SOUL! And I like to think that all human SOULs might change colors.
Monsters’ SOULs don’t flicker, as they are more keen with nature (to the point of naturally not trying to defy death, apparently…) and right feelings more often than not find them on their own - especially if they are shown kindness from someone else. Humans can actually choose to use (or not use) other virtues, because ‘Humans don’t need love and compassion to survive’.
As for the Ghost monsters, I really like to think that they originate from humans. Napstablook can’t get killed, and doesn’t have a SOUL - they ARE a SOUL! A white SOUL, specifically. I belive Mad Dummy ghost is white too. But as you can see, body, memories and even complexity of personality are lost - Napstablook is always sad, Mad Dummy is always angry… Mettaton was always sweet and sentimental, unless I misread it. Their only shot to come out of the state of Limbo is to take a shot at second life, being reborn as a monster (that happened with Mettaton, as you can kill him in robot body).
I like to think that if we were to play as other fallen humans, battles would almost always default into their preferred mode. Patience and Bravery modes were not used for reals, but I like to think that cyan SOUL mode would default into rhytm-game, whereas orange SOUL mode would have you smash buttons madly to ‘attack’ the bullets pattern with your movement! If you slow down and try to dodge naturally - they would get you.
Now, about Deltarune? I tried to imagine on what other humans might look like in the Dark World…
This one is not accurate to my specific fallen humans designs due to difference in brightness, more like, I tried to use Kris’ coloration as default. Just a small handy reference for me if I must design any more human fan-characters for Deltarune setting! As for whether personality of humans might effect their battle style…
I like to think so, yes! Bow to take down the bad guys, closest range weapon to face the enemy head on… Essentially, the most versatile ones are honest humans and ‘screw you, world!’ humans - albeit most often, you will find the former using culture objects and tools, whereas latter tends to use weapon showing raw power, since their personality is so powerful.
And just a small bonus of fusion traits, because I really like to imagine what fusion modes might be like! For example, orange + purple mode could easily work like old Doodle Jump game in the phones! I made extra effort to remove magenta/pink colors from the list, so the closest to it is pale-red confidence. Admittedly, they are rarer, and more importantly, fusions that include red colored mode seem to be… not very nice. I like to imagine that if we got to play as genuinely a very mean human, those would be their SOUL modes… You can just see very strong emphasis on ‘refusal’ in these traits!
Well, with that said, I think I am done geeking out about the traits here! I just really love to analyze this stuff, besides it will just be handy reference in the future.. (And I did have to stop myself before geeking out about how fusion SOULs modes gameplay would be, the post gotten loooong.)