Beautiful work! Alot people dislike Asgore based on bad information or

incomplete playthroughs of the game.



Case in point:



The game makes it clear that monsters power and vitality comes from their emotional state. In short, monsters can (and did) DIE from despair. Asgore giving them hope was

the only way to prevent his people's extinction.



Toriel's 'solution' (leaving with one soul and picking and choosing targets) would have just led to another war with the humans (as Asriel points out). More to the point, Humans A. don't tend to react well to monsters killing their kind (no matter WHO they are). B. Wouldn't react well to a goat man, wielding a pitchfork, with fire powers, coming from underneath the earth to collect souls (sound familiar?).





Furthermore, there is alot to suggest that several of the fallen humans were absolute murderous pieces of garbage (the descriptions and lore on several pieces of equipment seem to suggest that the Gunslinger and the Ballerina were on a genocide run and had to be put down).



Also, put yourself in the timeframe: the humans just killed a member of the royal family (hell, they might've even believed the humans killed BOTH Chara and Asriel) in cold blood and have threatened to kill more (per Gerson) if they saw another monster near their village. What would've happened if Asgore would've let it slide? The game already points to the answer in one of the neutral endings: Toriel is dethroned by an angry, vengeful populace and sent into exile, while her people prepare for war with renewed bloodlust under the grip of a leader far more vicious than she. Same thing would've happened to Asgore. Damned if he do. Damned if he dont.



Also, he's not trying to kill you anymore than Toriel is. H e knows there is no way out for you unless you take his soul. So he decides to sacrifice himself for you. During the fight it's clear he's holding back, not attacking you all out (despite being precise enough to hit the mercy button, he avoids looking at you and seems to be swinging wildly to try and avoid hitting you. Also with his stats, his damage should be able to drop you in one shot). Also, if Flowey is gone, he will commit suicide at the end of your fight if you try to spare him, just so YOU can be free. He is trying to get you to kill him so that his people will still have hope AND you will be saved. Even at the expense of his own life.



On top of that, Asgore KNOWS about the Resets. He knows about the existence of the player as an outside alien horror that treats killing monsters/sparing them like a game. Something that only he, Sans, Frisk, and Flowey know. He knows that in the end only this outside force can save them/damn them. That would definitely be something that changes ones perspective. A perspective Toriel was not privy to.



The point is, the big guy was stuck in a no win scenario and no one in the Underground had any answers (not even Toriel, as the neutral endings show, who was supposed to be the tactical genius behind the throne). Far from 'spineless' or a 'coward', Asgore may be the perfect example of a Byronic Hero: a champion in a damned world, flawed by his sins, but noble in his brokenness, a man who does not delude himself by calling himself a hero and accepting of others contempt, trying desperately to save others even though he expects it will cost him everything he holds dear (up to and including his soul).