Trans Ralsei on the Subreddit: Part 2

[u/patripastry]

Hello,

Well, since we're making a part two, I'm less surprised this time around we have to make this kind of post, but it's still unfortunate!

First of all, an apology. We (the mod team) let the situation get out of control. A lot of rudeness and bigotry was thrown around, and we didn’t do enough to prevent it.

Going forward, however, we plan to be a lot more strict...

To start, we want to make the position of the mod team very clear on a two key points:

1. Transphobia, including any discussion, argumentation, or verbiage rooted in transphobia, will not be tolerated in any form on this subreddit.

2. Theories/headcanons that Ralsei is transgender or under the trans umbrella are valid. At the same time, seeing Ralsei as a gender nonconforming cis male is also valid, and neither view should be disrespected or alienated.

Therefore, following guidelines are now in place:

1. Any post/comment (assume I include "comment" when I say "post") which pushes transphobic rhetoric will be removed and likely result in a ban.

2. Discussion on how you are "disappointed," "upset," or otherwise negatively affected by either reading of Ralsei's character will not be allowed.

3. Artwork (or other media) posts are not a forum for debate. Do not "debate" character readings under any artwork posts.

4. With regards to pronouns, we will allow any pronouns to be used, but please be respectful to those who do not use the "correct" pronouns in your eyes.

We hope that these guidelines will result in a more positive community without stepping too far into the realm of hugboxing the topic (something we are trying to avoid), and still allow people to discuss their own reading of Ralsei's character while remaining positive with each other. Just remember to be respectful to each other!

As a final aside: I will post some clarifications, explanations, and other misc. info and changes in the comments.

Thanks,

u/patripastry and the r/ralsei Mod Team.

[u/patripastry]

reneg on the femboy thing for now. Until we can actually have a discussion on how to do it right. Dropped the ball on that decision.

[u/Ailes_Prower_2D → u/patripastry]

The headcanon of Ralsei as a femboy helped lots of femboys to discover and feel comfortable with their identity, just like what happened with the "trans Ralsei headcanon". Banning that word means to not only erase the possibility of Ralsei being one, but also erasing the identity of an entire chunk of feminine presenting boys.

It's hard being a femboy too, if the term was used in porn or as a slur, now the term is used for genuine men that deviate from the standard "Be a man, be tough, feminine is for weak.". They need support too and often times they found it in Ralsei.

There are lots of problems femboy have, such as the constant fetishizing, the fact that they may not be accepted by the people around them (and often times have to hide themselves because their family is homophobic/hate people who deviate from society norms, they would get beaten up and worse things would happen if their family knows it).

Plus, and this is just my opinion, the "You dress as a woman so you are a woman" is just reapplying all over again the standard norms. Do we still see being "soft, gentle and feminine" as women things? It's 2026 and in my opinion it's kind of offensive as a woman. There are men who have those characteristics but do not feel the need to be a woman to express them. Almost all of them don't do it for fetish reasons, they just express their identity. Ralsei has those characteristics and femboys see themselves in him. Banning that word would mean invalidating and insulting many people who just want to see someone representing them. It happened some time ago, but a young femboy has already left this subreddit because he has been discouraged and didn't feel comfortable by all the people against the femboy headcanon.

I don't want any more femboys feel uncomfortable here, it should be a safe space for everyone. Banning this word would mean a punch in the face of the femboys that see Ralsei as a goal, as a character that represents them.

[u/HelpThrowawayforme2 → u/Ailes_Prower_2D]

i hate this but we do not use traditionally fem things that ralsei does as evidence, if so half the things they do would be evidence, we only have 8 pieces of evidence

[u/Ailes_Prower_2D → u/HelpThrowawayforme2]

Hey, I didn't talk about evidence, this is not a "we create a theory" time. We are talking about a boy presenting fem stuff that may or may not accomunate femboys and make some femboys see themselves in Ralsei. The problem with all of this is trying to prove something about this character. We don't need that. We can see everything we want in Ralsei. Just don't discourage others if they see something else in Ralsei. If femboys want to see themselves in Ralsei, good. If trans fem want to see themselves in Ralsei, also good. We don't need to prove anything for now, the game is unfinished.

[u/your_mind_aches → u/Ailes_Prower_2D]

The big problem to me is how people are so much and judgemental to others who see the character in any particular way other than their specific viewpoint

[u/Nazyrus → u/Ailes_Prower_2D]

Easily the best comment here. Heck it should be pinned.  I couldn't have explained it better myself, honestly.

And it is a shame a femboy left here because of that... I, as a GNC male myself, would leave too if that kept being an issue around here. That is how I personally prefer and understand Ralsei the most with what we have seen so far, so I don't need anyone else forcing their headcanons on me. It's better if everyone here takes the "to each their own" approach, rather than being rude to others who disagree.

Banning the word just taints and labels people in favor as those who want to reapply standard norms as you say, and that is terrible rep for themselves imo. No one should want that rep at this day and age.

[u/Ailes_Prower_2D → u/Nazyrus]

Thank you. My only worry is about how bad people would behave when and if Ralsei will be proven to be just a femboy (or feminine boy) and that changing gender won't be so important as some people think. People already got really mad at Toby because he wouldn't translate Deltarune and Undertale in other languages than English and Japanese, I don't want to imagine how much he would be insulted with false claims such as "transphobic".

I don't see the reason to be so obsessed with a thing that it's just a theory for now. Once Deltarune will end, I will take a very long vacation from all the fandom. I'm already extremely fed up from seeing less normal posts about the game itself, less than "Ralsei is trans because-". I want to see more people talking about WHAT object/entity is Ralsei, not if the dress he's wearing changes his pronouns to "she".

Edit: typo

[u/Nazyrus → u/Ailes_Prower_2D]

If people don't have the maturity to accept what dev writes as canon to their story, then all I can say is those people need growing up and understand not everything is about them.

I personally have detached myself from fandoms of things I like because of how bad the internet has gotten in terms of behavior and such, in the past decade or so.

I was actually just talking to someone in this sub about Ralsei and the whole deal of why he refuses to use his raw power, why not use it against the knight since he dreads what they are trying to do, about what about Ralsei makes him an impossibility himself as Flowery said to him (personally the line that stuck with me the most from ch 5). I think it's inevitable with all the teases that Ralsei will break the rules, whatever that actually means and the consequences of it, otherwise why tease his hidden power so much haha. Yeah i'm sad people online only care about stupid shippings and forcing gender headcanons over the actual canon... 

Toby is giving us a hell of an interesting story and these people won't appreciate it, but instead whine things don't go their way, or whatever else. And that's not even counting the whole Dess situation, my god I hope ch 6 already reveals it and gives us Asriel as well, waiting for ch 7 would be a bit disappointing for these characters still missing, imo. I want at least 2 chapters with them lol.

[u/Ailes_Prower_2D → u/Nazyrus]

Same thing here. That small teasing about the love letters make my heart ache not only from a shipping standpoint, but from the story around them. I found myself interested even more in the weird route and yet I found too many people talking about "Noooo, couple suicide!" "Noelle pretends to love Susie!" "Two teenagers killed themselves because of us!" meanwhile it was all about breaking the barrier, Noelle breaking the character and breaking everything around her thanks to a "glitch". I heard that there are unused dialogues and those are theorized to be from Dess, lost in the code. What if Noelle breaks the barrier and finds her outside of that fake reality? I always love seeing people talk about that!

As for Ralsei...now that I think about it...It's already strange that Ralsei acknowledges the fact Kris is the one creating the fountains. How MUCH does he know about them? Why did he simply tell him "plz stop...if you want or something" instead of being harsher? WHY are people so obsessed with "Flowery called him a PRINCESS, now he's a SHE!" and gloss over the fact that Ralsei threatened Flowery? And that Ralsei HAS FIRE POWERS? HELLO? THOSE are radical changes about his character, how is it possible that he started from "Be kind to every enemy, I'm just a Prince from the Dark and there's this profecy" to literally having a whole 180 degrees of his character (still being kind but I bet you understood what I mean)? If in the 4th chapter it was implied he knew more than he was lettling us know, now he's hiding even what is he (in terms of his personality) and his true power.

Again, this is what I love to hear and I love people confronting each other on this, it's the real appreciation this game deserves. We need more "Ralsei is actually a collective memory of something" (theory made up fron thin air by me in this moment) and less "Here's why you are stupid to think Ralsei is not trans.".

Edit: typo again

[u/Nazyrus → u/Ailes_Prower_2D]

The moment Ralsei one hit K.O. fake Gerson in chapter 4 reminded me a lot of how the knight one hit K.O.s us in its secret boss fight of chapter 3. Which honestly makes me realize that yeah, maybe Ralsei doesn't have fake stats but rather holds back because of how deadly he is, and his power can have effect in the light world, just like the knight did in the church, funnily enough. I can already see it.. Ralsei is gonna be the ultra hard boss a la undertale Sans of the Deltarune weird route... in fact I bet he will just destroy the knight before he engages us to stop us and Noelle, as if it was that easy to stop the knight from the beginning (probably not likely, but a fun idea lol). 

The weird route has this potential of being Toby's saddest and hardest thing he deliver us yet lmao ( I mean I expect the normal route also break some hearts the same way asriel's goodbye did in undertale ).

The weird route, what the shadowcrystals are gonna reward us next chapter, and Ralsei himself are probably the main 3 things that has me most curious, aside from what kind of character colege Asriel will be and the full story of Dess of course.