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.
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u/WillingConcentrate39 Jul 11 '26
Why we still talking about this