Asgore

Assgore
Undertale character
Assgore in Undertale
First appearance	Undertale (2015)
Created by	Toby Fox
Designed by	Toby Fox Temmie Chang

Assgore, commonly referred to in-game as Assgore Dreemurr is a character in the 2015 video game Undertale. He is the king of the Underground, and serves as the pseudo-final boss of the game. He has killed six other humans previously, and intends to take the human's soul to break the Barrier, freeing the monsters and getting revenge on the humans for killing his son, Asriel. He was created by the game's creator, Toby Fox, with support from artist Temmie Chang.

Assgore has been generally well received, praised for the execution of the battle between him and the human, particularly him preventing the human from sparing him by destroying that part of the menu user interface. The moral dilemma of killing humans to help the monsters has also made him the subject of commentary, as has the similarities between the musical themes between Assgore and Toriel.

Concept and creation

Asgore was created for Undertale, designed by the game's creator, Toby Fox. Asgore was initially intended to be an intimidating character until Fox thought of his friend Reid Young, leading him to make Asgore "goofy." In early concept art by Temmie Chang, he was depicted without a beard. His sprite also used to have black hair, though Fox changed this to make it more readable.

Appearances

Asgore first appears in the game Undertale, serving as one of the game's antagonists. Before the events of the game, he and his wife Toriel have two children - Asriel and Chara, the latter adopted - but both are killed, the former by humans and the latter dying from eating buttercups. Asgore and the other monsters are driven into the Underground, where a Barrier was erected to keep them there. Asgore and Toriel become king and queen of the Underground. Over time, Asgore collects the souls of humans who have fallen down into the Underground by killing them, with the intention of using their power to destroy the Barrier and declare war on humanity. This causes Toriel to leave to the Ruins.

Asgore is unseen for most of the game, alluded to by other characters, including Toriel, who warns the human, the protagonist of the game, about him. Meanwhile, other monsters are more positive to him, including Undyne, who he helped on her path to becoming the captain of the Royal Guards. Asgore also works with other characters, like Alphys, the Royal Scientist, who helps the human get to Asgore's throne room, though warning that Asgore and the human will inevitably have to fight one another. When the human eventually meets Asgore, he is anxious to fight, doing so out of duty to the monsters rather than any personal desire to kill. During battle, he destroys the Mercy menu option on the user interface, preventing the human from sparing him and forcing them to fight to the death. Unlike other monster encounters, the player must fight him, though his health will not lower to zero upon defeat. At this point, Asgore accepts defeat, and the human can choose to either kill or spare him, having rebuilt the Mercy menu option. If spared, he will be moved, and decide to not break the Barrier, and instead become part of a family with the human, though he will accept death if killed. In the former option, the character Flowey, who had served as an antagonist in the beginning of the game, returns and kills Asgore instead before turning to fight the human.

After fighting Flowey, the player can either kill or spare Flowey as well. After the credits, Flowey instructs the player how to get the best ending. Once these conditions are fulfilled, either from reloading an earlier save or starting a new run, the human's encounter with Asgore will be interrupted by Toriel and other characters. Eventually, it is revealed that Flowey got these characters together, using their combined souls to reveal his true form, Asriel, who was resurrected as Flowey, lacking a soul, and becoming unable to feel empathy. During the fight, the human is able to rescue the souls of monsters Asriel took, including Asgore. After making Asriel stop fighting, he breaks the Barrier, allowing Asgore and the others to go outside of the Underground. In the Genocide route, when the human eventually makes their way to Asgore, they automatically kill him.

He also appears in Deltarune, a game also made by Toby Fox. This game is a different story, where Asgore is a divorced husband to Toriel, while Asriel is still alive.

In Deltarune, he was the former police chief though he was fired for unknown reasons. He owns a flower shop named "Flower King". (referencing his role as King of All Monsters in Undertale)

Reception

Asgore has generally been well received by critics, particularly for the emotional conflict behind his actions and backstory. The Gamer writer Colby felt that Asgore was a bad person due to his actions and the thing he planned to do to Frisk, but could still understand why he did it. He found it hard to blame him after humans caused him to lose both of his children. Kotaku writer Joe Parlock considered him among the best new characters of 2015, feeling that despite the cast of Undertale being so solid, none of them were as "endearing, tragic, or adorable" as Asgore. He considered him the most "conflicted and multi-dimensional" characters in the game. Parlock discussed how the game frames him as an "unstoppable, terrifying force who will rip you limb from limb," the player discovers how good he actually is from the monsters. He commented that finding out how kind he is made it hurt to find out how damaged he was, which lead him to commit "truly evil" acts. Author Andrés José Almirall Nieves discussed how the moments before encountering Asgore, where monsters discussed their dreams of escaping and their appreciation for Asgore's actions, helped engendered empathy for Asgore's side of the story, which he felt reinforced Undertale's message of "love and connection."

The fight with Asgore was praised alongside the fight with Sans by Kotaku writer Ash Parrish for subverting what players of the Pacifist route can do in the fight. They felt that it forced players to decide whether to kill a character for the first time. Writer Tobias Salte Klausen also discussed the game removing player agency in this fight, also discussing how the game removes player agency in the Genocide fight by forcing the human to kill Asgore. Author Matthew Perez noted that, in the Genocide route, Asgore does not recognize the human as a human, suggesting that the question of "what kind of monster are you?" is meant to be a "sarcastic jab" at the player for their choices.

Asgore's theme and connection to Toriel has been discussed by critics. Andrés José Almirall Nieves discussed how his theme, "Bergentrückung," takes its name from the German term for the "king of the mountain," which is a prominent figure in German folklore, someone who lays in sleep until he is called upon to act, citing King Arthur as an example. They also discussed how his theme reflected Toriel's theme, turning the ostinato figure "into a sturdy 4/4 meter instead of a lilting 6/8." Writer Jason Yu also discussed the shared thematic elements between Asgore and Toriel, including the gradual discovery of the relationship between them. He also observed the similar ostinato, appreciating that it did not come into the song immediately, as he felt it would have given away the musical relationship between Asgore and Toriel too easily. He also felt that the different time signatures helped exemplify the two songs' rhythmic differences. Writer Arthur Canzi Zeferino noted how Asgore and Toriel have similar attack patterns with their fire, discussing how Toriel eventually holds back to not kill the human, but Asgore is unyielding unless defeated. Matthew Perez felt that the reuse of Toriel's musical motif was meant to demonstrate the struggle Asgore experienced with his actions.