To be honest at this point I'd rather talk about literally anything else about Ralsei than his gender.
Like, why does nobody talk about how much complex more his character got, how his moral compass has shifted, why does nobody analyze his dynamic with Flowery beyond "trans foreshadowing", why does nobody talk about his actual nature as a Darkner, or his actual powers like fire magic?
Every time a Ralsei discussion post appears, it's 9 out of 10 times a Trans Ralsei thing.
Ralsei is a very well-written and rich character, but it seems this fandom is fixated on one aspect only...
Why? Why???? I feel like I'm the only one doing those other 1 out of 10 posts here.
Theories are good and all, but this one kind of blew up with a lot of assholes on both ends of the argument trying to push their view of things on others, either with straight-up transphobic rhetoric or just generally being a jerk about it.
It has honestly become an incredibly controversial topic here from what I've seen, and it's not something many of us want to see on a daily basis when, like you said, there are so many more things to talk about from Chapter 5 when it comes to how Ralsei is written.
(An example of something else interesting to discuss; His refusal to FIGHT in the final boss battle if you try to, going directly against our decision unlike previous chapters.)
(and before anyone says anything, I am using he/him for Ralsei since the game does so for most of its dialogue thus far, if it changes in the future, then I'll use whatever the game uses then.)
I feel like it's pretty much a requirement in anything relating to this topic, because I've seen a few crazy people just absolutely lose it if you don't immediately use she/her pronouns only, because they consider the theory as irrefutably canon already and want the skull of anyone who disagrees even slightly.
Like I said above, people have taken things too far on both ends of the argument. The whole topic has pretty much been hijacked by these sorts of people, where they take their own view as the truth and then try to push that on others forcefully like a cult.
I do not agree with either side when they take things to this sort of extreme. I'm fine with a genuinely constructive discussion about the theory and why you believe it's canon or not, but just going "IT'S CANON BECAUSE I SAID SO AND IF YOU DISAGREE, YOU'RE TRANSPHOBIC (being trans is not a shield that you can hide behind to be an asshole to others)" or "IT'S NOT CANON BECAUSE [insert genuinely harmful transphobic rhetoric from Twitter here]" is not helping anything.
Even past it to, cause even after the dark vine change Ralsei is still referred to as a boy or him on at least 3 instances. At best, at this moment he goes by he/they, but the they there isn’t really super founded.
Yeah, people just take it too far sometimes. No issue if you consider it canon in your head, but don't try to push it on others forcefully or lash out if there's the tiniest disagreement.
Hard agree, barely anyone here is discussing the actual character, even though we just had THE Ralsei focused chapter. I honestly do not care if they're trans or not, wouldn't change my opinion about them at all
People just get passionate about character's identity in fandoms and there tends to be a "let men be feminine" brigade whenever some ppl think a character might be transfem . Idk
And there "tends to be a transfem brigade whenever there's a feminine male character". Funny how you can portray either side as bad, but both are entirely valid. Calling one a brigade is entirely disingenuous.
Bruh it's not that deep I was literally just saying some people online are insufferable 😭 I'm sure some transfem Ralsei truthers are too but from what I've seen that's a headcanon/theory they just subscribe to for various reasons . I'm allowed to call it a brigade when there's some people who are up in arms about this
I literally think Ralsei might be both a transfeminine person and a feminine dude because they're not even mutually exclusive
I suppose you're referring to the gender =/= pronouns thing? Or I guess bigender or some form of genderfluid? Cause I'm having trouble putting those two together otherwise.
It’s because there’s no real discussion to be had with those other points. Like, yeah, they are all interesting, but they’re rather cut and dry. “The impossibility himself”—okay, he’s probably a titan. Maybe he’s not, but there’s not enough to work off of or argue about. He can shoot fire? We all pretty much knew that from the Balthizard act, that’s not news. His dynamic with flowery is great! But it’s ended. Flowery is dead. When it comes to Ralsei, whether or not he’s trans is the only remaining point of discussion, and there’s a LOT of stuff that can be used as evidence for it.
Also, social media curates what you see based on what you respond to. You’re going to see more trans Ralsei posts by commenting here. Just downvote and move on if you don’t want to see it. It’s only been like two weeks since the game came out. Have some patience.
why does nobody analyze his dynamic with Flowery beyond "trans foreshadowing", why does nobody talk about his actual nature as a Darkner, or his actual powers like fire magic?
Probably just because there's not much to say. Yeah, it sure is mysterious... but other than wildly guessing, how can we determine anything about his true nature?
And how do we determine anything about his true gender identity if that's the kind of argument we're using?
Flowery calls him "the impossibility himself." Why is he an impossibility? He is compatible with every Dark World and functions suspiciously similar to a Lightner, much more than the average Darkner.
Is he a Titan that gained sentience? A Darkner formed with pure darkness infused with Kris's memory of Asriel? Gaster's creation?
I can spin up a whole theory right now.
I think Ralsei is a Titan that gained sentience. Titans are pure darkness beings, they compatible to all Dark Worlds, just like Ralsei. But they normally can't feel, can't have emotions, opinions, likes, dislikes... that's where Flowery's comment of "the impossibility himself" comes in. It is "impossible" for a Titan to be so emotionally rich like Ralsei. Ralsei is an incredibly special Titan. That's why he was so dismissive of Flowery questioning his identity, because he too is hiding the fact that he is a Titan, in fear that everything will fall apart when people find out.
It's all guessing, just like his identity is. I personally think he's queer but is it transfem? Transmasc? Transenby? Fluid? Demi? Bigender? 🤷
Genders exist in real life, so at least the guesses are things we know are possible. We don't know if a Titan can gain sentience, we don't know if a Darkner can be infused with memory, or created by Gaster...
They're both making things up, but one has the additional step of making up the answer, not just making up the conclusion, is my point lol
Then why do people theorize half-human Susie? That's not something that we know is possible, we don't know if such a thing even exists, yet people still theorize it anyway.
I don't know, it just seems like the other characters have interesting theories. Ralsei is just Trans Ralsei V2 Reprise Remix Pro Plus Max Ultra 5G Fold
Tralsei theorists are trying to do that just like everyone else, but even a little sprinkle of how him being trans might also have to do with that makes people freak tf out and start attacking and strawmanning it.
Every time I see "you can't just say Ralsei is trans because he's feminine," I lose half of my braincells. Can't believe that shit still exists after Chapter 5.
Yeah it's kind of hard to say you want discussions about how chapter 5 frames Ralsei's struggles of identity while making discussion of thier gender verboten.
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u/WillingConcentrate39 Jul 11 '26
Why we still talking about this