Flowey

"In this world, it's kill or BE killed."

- Flowey's catchphrase. "Howdy! It's me, Flowey. Flowey the Flower! I owe you a huge thanks. You really did a number on that old fool. Without you, I never could have gotten past him. But now, with your help... He's DEAD. And I've got the human souls! Boy! I've been empty for so long... It feels great to have a soul inside me again. Mmmm, I can feel them wriggling... Awww, you're feeling left out, aren't you? Well, that's just perfect. After all, I only have six souls. I still need one more... Before I become GOD. And then, with my newfound powers... Monsters. Humans. Everyone. I'll show them all the REAL meaning of this world."

- Flowey before transforming into "Photoshop Flowey".

Flowey (originally known as Asriel Dreemurr) is the primary antagonist of the 2015 RPG videogame Undertale, and the first character the protagonist meets after falling into the Underground. He appears as a small golden flower.

Past
Originally known as Asriel Dreemurr, he was born the child of Asgore and Toriel, the king and queen of the monsters. After a war against the humans forced all monsters underground, sealed away with a magical barrier, he lived his childhood separated from humans; however, when a child fell through the barrier, his family adopted them as their own. He soon became fast friends with the human child, and the two of them would do anything together.

Some time later, the child became deathly ill, and told Asriel of their desire to be returned to the surface and buried in their home village. Taking his sibling's soul, Asriel was able to breach the barrier and enter the human world, but when seen by the humans, he was accused of killing the child and was subsequently attacked. Despite having immense power from both a human and a monster's soul, he refused to fight back, and managed to return to the Underground before finally dying over a field of golden flowers. It later became clear that the child deliberately poisoned themself, as part of a plan devised with Asriel to gather six human souls, and wished to use their combined powers to kill the people in the village.

The royal scientist of the monsters, Alphys, was tasked with finding out a method of breaking the barrier without the use of a human's soul, and in doing so discovered the existence of a substance known as Determination, which kept human souls powerful even after death. After tests on giving Determination to monsters proved unsuccessful, she decided to test the substance on an object without a soul; one of the golden flowers Asriel died over. As a result, with his essence absorbed in the flower, he was reborn within it, with all his old memories, but without his soul.

Asriel attempted to live life with his father, and then with his separated mother, trying to regain his soul and emotions, but was ultimately unsuccessful. In the end, he ran away and attempted to kill himself, but when he changed his mind at the last minute, he found himself returned to an earlier point in time. He discovered that his Determination allowed him to undo and reset time itself, like saving and reloading a video game, and began to experiment with his new power. At first attempting to befriend all the monsters around him, he soon grew bored with being able to predict people's reactions, and turned to violence instead. Now calling himself Flowey, he would kill every monster in the underground he could find, reset time, and repeat the process over again.

After a certain point, however, he found he could no longer alter time. The cause, he discovered, was due to a new child falling into the Underground, someone who looked just like his sibling from the past with powers of Determination able to override his own. Flowey then decided to use this child to his own advantage, leading them down a route where they would either die and return the power to him, or allow him to attain even greater power.

Undertale
Flowey introduces himself to the player at the start of the game, pretending to be a friendly figure introducing the mechanics of the game, but quickly reveals his true nature and tries to kill them immediately, only to be stopped by Toriel. After the child leaves the ruins and travels further into the Underground, he taunts the player based on whether or not they had killed anyone, before disappearing again. He follows the player through the game, staying just out of sight.

Neutral Run
In the Neutral ending, Flowey appears just before the player can kill Asgore, and deals the finishing blow himself, destroying both his own father and his soul. He then steals for himself the six human souls that Asgore had collected in hopes of destroying the barrier, and transforms into a horrific monster known as "Photoshop Flowey" with full control over time. Out of sheer pleasure, he traps the child in an endless battle, always bringing them to death or near death and then resetting time to do it all over again, while at the same time saving and loading moments in time when he can best hurt them. However, when the child calls out to the six human souls inside of him, they rebel against him and seal away his godlike powers. Completely helpless, he is left to the player's choice to either be killed or spared.

If killed, Flowey will acknowledge the player for killing him and turns into just a plain flower. He doesn't appear at the beginning if the player restarts, but still remains at the end. If spared, Flowey will be confused as to why the player decided to spare him and gives them several opportunities to make the killing blow. If granted mercy enough times, Flowey will express his lack of understanding before running away.

Pacifist Run
This ending can only be achieved if a Neutral Route has been completed previously.

In the True Pacifist ending, Flowey organizes for every monster in the Underground to gather in Asgore's castle, and uses the opportunity to steal all their souls at once. With so many combined souls, Flowey is able to finally take his true form as Asriel Dreemurr, and challenges the player head-on for the return of their souls and a "happy ending". As they battle, he expresses his true desire, to be able to play with his best friend and sibling for all eternity, no matter who is sacrificed in the process. He is ultimately defeated when the child reaches and frees the souls of the monsters trapped inside him, and finally frees his own soul. In a moment of pure lucidity, unaffected by emotions of rage and guilt, Asriel finally reaches peace with the child; he acknowledges that his sibling was not a good person, and releases the souls he had taken, after using his power to destroy the barrier and let monsters return to the surface.

In the epilogue, if the player goes back to the first area of the game, they'll find Asriel there, saying that he's decided to stay in the Underground, so that he will not harm anyone after he turns into Flowey again. If the player starts up the game after the True Pacifist ending, Flowey will appear to try to convince the player not to reset the game and everyone's happy ending, before saying that the player must have "already heard him say it a hundred times." He says his final farewell to the player and leaves, referring to them with the First Human's name.

Genocide Run
In the Genocide route, Flowey is downgraded as secondary antagonist, the true main antagonist being Chara (Or possibly the player themself). If the player keeps murdering every monster on their way, Flowey finally realizes that the child was growing more evil than him, and that he too was in danger of dying. He quickly escapes to warn Asgore of the coming danger, while the child is distracted fighting Sans. When Asgore is ultimately brought near death, Flowey reappears and deals the finishing blow, claiming to have been on the child's side all along, crying and begging for forgiveness; thus, revealing his true identity as Asriel Dreemurr. However, if his pleadings are ignored he is mercilessly killed by Chara, who slashes him repeatedly until nothing remains.

Personality
Initially, Flowey operates under a façade of friendliness and politeness. He often greets the protagonist with southern jargon, such as "Howdy!", calls himself "your best friend", and (like his father) appends polite words such as "gosh" and "golly" to the ends of his sentences. Whenever he drops this guise of friendliness, he often calls the protagonist an "idiot".

Flowey has a malevolent and cruel disposition, berating the protagonist for not following his "kill or be killed" philosophy. Despite this, he also criticizes the protagonist at the end of the Ruins if they killed any monster. He is a greedy, arrogant, egocentric, manipulative, devious, sly, and cunning planner, who is subtle if the circumstances require it. He retains his memories between SAVEs because he was once able to SAVE. He is also shown to be extremely solicitous, pusillanimous, diffident, and cowardly, as he kills his former father to appease the protagonist in a vain attempt to save his own life in the Genocide Route's conclusion.

Appearance
Flowey usually appears as a sentient, grinning, golden flower, with a white androecium, six yellow petals, and a light green stem. Flowey can contort his face into a variety of expressions and mimic the faces and voices of other characters. He mimics Toriel and Asgore in some situations, as well as his old self at the end of the Genocide Route. He also mimics the protagonist's face before the Neutral Route's final battle.

Trivia

 * Flowey acts as the true main antagonist at the end in place of the lead-up main antagonist, Asgore, due to the latter being revealed as a kind and sorrowful character.
 * If one backtracks a bit after certain points, they can catch a quick look at Flowey for a split second before he retreats underground, showing that he's been stalking the player, even up to the end of the game.
 * Flowey is similar to Giygas from EarthBound, as both in their final forms are unrecognizable abominations, are almost invincible and are willing to kill the protagonist at any costs. In addition, at one point the protagonist calls for help to defeat them.
 * Oddly enough, Flowey is also similar to Porky Minch from the same franchise, as both apparently acted as minor antagonists at first but then they revealed themselves as major antagonists. Not to mention that both taunted the protagonist using the same insult during the final boss battle.
 * Flowey is very similar to Dimentio from Super Paper Mario.
 * They both initially appear to be minor antagonists.
 * They both kill the apparent main antagonists after the (seemingly) final battle, right after the fake main antagonists reveal their tragic motives.
 * They even both kill them using their trademark attacks.
 * However, Count Bleck survived Dimentio finishing blow as Nastasia took the blow instead.
 * They both end up becoming the true, much more disturbing and godlike final bosses.
 * Flowey also has similarities to Uncle Rupee from the Zelda spin-off game Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland.
 * They are both the first characters the protagonist meet.
 * They both initially pretend to be friendly, but later reveal their sinister nature.
 * They both manipulate the main protagonist for their own gain.
 * They both become dark final bosses.
 * If the protagonist has killed Toriel at least once before, then reset or load the game and spare her, Flowey tells them not to get cocky and proceeds to taunt them by pointing out what they had done: "You murdered her. And then you went back, because you regretted it". He informs the protagonist he previously had the power to SAVE and reset, and that he played as the world's god before the protagonist's arrival superseded his. He tells the protagonist that he will be watching them.
 * Flowey is also similar to Darth Vader as:
 * Both used to be on the good side, acting kind and nice to others until both were led to the dark side by a corrupting force (Chara for Asriel, Palpatine for Vader).
 * Both had to leave their true selves after turning to villains, Asriel to Flowey, and Anakin to Vader.
 * Both hold a sort of care to the protagonists even if they already knew they were enemies at first.
 * Both at the end are redeemed and die with honor.
 * Both are also biologically related to one of the protagonists (Flowey/Asriel as Toriel and Asgore's son and Darth Vader as Luke's father.)
 * Flowey's real name Asriel Dreemurr is an anagram for "serial murderer".
 * His name is also a reference to Azrael, The Angel Of Death from Judeo/Christian mythology. This is implied by his final form resembling the Delta Rune, which Gerson refers to as "an angel of death," and several other death related themes revolving around his character.
 * Flowey is very similar to Professor Von Kriplespac from Conker's Bad Fur Day.
 * Both were thought to be the secondary antagonists but were later revealed to be the true main antagonists.
 * Both of them kill the main antagonist making the main antagonist the secondary antagonist.