Undertale: The Red SOUL Does NOT Stand For “Determination”

This is a point I heard someone make recently, and while I dismissed it at first, I realized they may actually have a point.

Firstly: never in canon is the red SOUL stated to stand for determination. The Ball Game is the primary source for discerning what the other six SOUL colors correspond to, most obviously when you get the red flag and it gives you all six traits in the corresponding colors.

But what does it say about the red trait?

Nothing. The only thing highlighted in red is the phrase “Ball Game,” and that obviously isn’t a SOUL trait. Even if you get the red flag a second time, there is no new red text, and no mention of determination anywhere.

Further, there is no evidence in the game that Frisk/Chara’s red SOUL is related to their determination. Sure, it can be argued that their determination is stronger than most, if not all, but this is never tied to their SOUL–it is tied to them.

So we’ve established that determination is not necessarily the trait that corresponds to the red SOUL. But can we discern what the red trait might be?

Well, look back at the quote you get when you get the red flag on Ball Game for a second time: “Try as you might, you continue to be yourself.”

If there’s one thing the Ball Game is good at, it’s alluding to the traits of SOUL colors. This quote, the only thing that says anything about what makes the red SOUL special, implies that red corresponds to being true to oneself.

When I first discovered this, I wondered what the word for this would be. At first I thought “Integrity” was the word (the biggest reason I distrusted this part of the theory for a time), but I recently discovered that integrity means, to quote Merriam-Webster: “firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values/an unimpaired condition/the quality or state of being complete or undivided.” In other words, moral uprightness.

So what would the term for being true to oneself be? Well, there might be something better, but I will go with “Sincerity” for now.



We could stop here, but I want to go further: how do Frisk/Chara epitomize sincerity?

To discern this, we need only look to the Pacifist Route. When you choose to Laugh in the battle with Snowdrake’s mother, this happens:

Frisk has enough sincerity to outright defy what the narrator is saying about them. And this happens only on the True Pacifist route, where Frisk’s true self emerges–their true name is revealed, and they begin to establish themself as their own person, separate from the player.

In addition, there is another, though less solid, allusion. If you have killed any monsters, but not Papyrus, Sans’s judgement will contain the following quote:

“… truthfully, it doesn’t really matter what you said. all that’s important is that you were honest with yourself.”



Honesty with oneself and being true to oneself seem to go hand in hand, though again, I acknowledge that this is rather flimsy support.

To summarize: Determination is not the defining trait of the red SOUL; it may very well be sincerity, or being true to yourself.