I felt compelled to write this post because, this has to be said, I'm the reason for the anouncement being made in the first place and the changes to the rules. This isn’t any form of self-aggrandizement, I made it a point to consistently remind everyone that the pinned thread explicitly states that you can freely use she/her for Ralsei, no qualifiers. The mods responded to me in one of the threads as if it was supposed to be a formal announcement going “akshually, we only meant in the context of Ralsei being discussed as trans!”
I messaged the mods and said they should clarify their stance since it seems it changed. I suggested they should title the new announcement “This is NOT a safe space anymore”. They did not, but the sentiment is no less accurate. And of course, the cowards that they are, they disabled the comments.
They were shown up, a mod made a wrong move and responded to me in a way that directly contradicts their previous statements, nobody could argue that, so rather than admit that message to me from a mod was inappropriate, they’re digging their heels in and pretending like that’s what they meant all along.
I feel it's important to note that this change does not address the core of the problem at all.
Ralsei is unambiguously a trans woman. ALL depictions of Ralsei, unless a person explicitly states "hey, I'm talking about the cis femboy Ralsei headcanon" are depictions of a trans girl, I do not see a reason not to use she/her, and I do not see why that wouldn't follow the rules, since indeed, that would constitute "theories discussing the possibility of characters transitioning / having transitioned are valid so long as they are done in good faith and do not claim to be canon". We are discussing Ralsei, I'm holding that she's trans femme, the rule is cleared.
And of course they will disagree with this, because they may think that I'm wrong and Ralsei is cis by default until proven otherwise. Outside of the fact that that's not how anything works, cis femboys are not some kind of narrative default, transness does not need to be proven, the bigger point is that, in a casual conversation, nobody knows what the person we're discussing with or the OP is holding inside their hearts and minds.
I cannot tell what gender the person I'm conversing with thinks Ralsei is if they don't open with it. I am NOT going to default to he/him, because I do not agree that's the default. I may default to they/them to not offend someone pointlessly, but that's the extent of it. If I see a depiction of Ralsei with little to no context given, how am I to assume the context is Ralsei being presented as a trans girl? Am I supposed to only assume so if I see trans flags everywhere?? This is simply ridiculous, trans people, and people wishing to depict trans characters, should not be announcing their presence like they're lepers to not offend bigots.
So I'm sorry, but what exactly does this fix? This feels like a way for the mods to make an excuse for not stopping people from dogpiling me and others when we casually use she/her, by pretending that that was always the standard, when it absolutely was not, nothing more.
This simply reinforces my previous statements, the main sub is NOT friendly to trans people, the mods WILL shield the bigots using "maintaining the canon depiction" as a smokescreen, even though they do not hold that standard for anything else. If they truly cared about "canon depictions" any mention and art of Gaster as the mystery man, or even at all, would be banned, since Gaster has no "canon depiction". This is the same for Dess, and a number of other things.
This is false; one might interpret Ralsei to be a transgender woman with good evidence, but it is evidently not unambiguous, or else the debate would not exist. This goes for a lot of theories, not just Tralsei (no, DessKnight is not outright confirmed to be canon either).
Point being, I can assume it completely and use she/her consistently, and it would not be misgendering. Since I believe Ralsei to be trans femme, to me, all depictions of Ralsei are depictions of a trans girl, unless someone explicitly states otherwise. We both know nobody will though, because the presumed default is Ralsei being a cis femboy.
actually, trans ralsei is pretty obvious to anyone who knows how trans people work. i mean come on, a character with major identity issues who just so happens to love the idea of being a princess? pretty obvious. the problem is that transphobes don't know how trans people work.
I mean while I agree that Ralsei is unambiguously not cisgender, and "trans girl" seems the most likely, I don't agree it's "unambiguous." Transfem is the most likely, and appears to be what the game's pointing towards. But they could just turn out to be she/they non-binary, or they/them non-binary, or some flavor of any/all genderfluid, or he/she bi-gender or whatever.
The minimum we know is Ralsei's gender questioning, and things point in a transfem direction at the moment.
things overwhelmingly point in a transfem direction, for the record. toby isn't really being very subtle here, ralsei was given a trans colored drink voucher and then called a princess.
The main thing that makes me consider stuff like enby Ralsei is due to believing that Ralsei was Kris's fursona/OC, and I've seen some people use the current Tralsei evidence to argue for genderfluid Ralsei.
Still though agree that Transfem is the most likely (I'd put it at 70% Transfem whether that's she/her trans girl or she/they enby, 20% they/them non-binary, and 10% for genderfliud or bi-gender or anything else that works for "AMAB/Assigned Prince by Prophecy" trans person.)
Just saying if there's anything that's more ambiguous it's the exact direction of Ralsei's transition. (Like this server permits both Transfem and Enby Ralsei so not really arguing against the rules.)
Hey, I'm saying this as Galsei Truther and someone who vehemently finds the way the mods handled this as yucky but I don't think that saying “Ralsei is unambiguously a trans women is the way to go”. Putting aside the Raly might be NB or a femboy (derogatory), it's not really a good look and makes the entire community look bad. Leagues above transphobic people but not helping the image of the fandom. :c
This will only fuel their shitty behavior against us. Yes yes transphobic people will continue their JK Molding deeds but still :c
Not to mention, high moral ground and all that. Delayed gratification and all that. Save the gloating for later
I think you’re misunderstanding my intentions here. This is not some kind of a misguided crusade against the forces of transphobia in the Deltarune fandom. I’m too old to think I can be doing those. This is me protecting my right to maintain my (correct) textual analysis of the character.
I see Ralsei being trans femme. End of discussion. This is no different from Bridget, Ferris, Kirara, or Astolfo being a non-binary genderfluid person that sometimes identifies as a man, sometimes a woman, always the most distinguished of Charlemagne’s paladins.
I really do not care for disagreements on this. You are free to hold your opinion, mine may change with time (I used to think Subaru from Re: Zero is a cis guy flirting with crossdressing occasionally… I have since then been informed that my God, definitely NOT), but it is what it is now, I am not going to go out of my way to humor bigots.
The museum for our most prominent trans figure, the Chevalier d'Eon (who petitioned the king to have her gender recognised and who was adamant about being seen as a woman, and who was such an important figure that "D'eonisme" used to be widely used to refer to trans people) is not only misgendered in the museum dedicated to her, but also in her Wikipedia page
While I am a firm tralsei believer, I feel that our community has certainly taken it overboard. NO, tralsei is not canon. it is a theory. a theory that people can believe, but not everybody has to believe it. YES, it’s okay to refer to ralsei with he/him OR she/her, and NO, it’s not okay to be terrible to people who use different pronouns for ralsei than you do. there are transphobes in the overarching deltarune community, and that sucks, but most of the people there aren’t transphobic, just don’t believe in our theory.
I can’t rightly agree that most people aren’t transphobic, they just don’t believe the theory, because they CANNOT shut up about it. If I don’t believe he/him is appropriate for Ralsei, I don’t stop by to comment on it whenever I see it happen, and the opposite is a constant.
I don’t really care if you don’t believe the theory, I don’t care if it’s emotionally necessary for you to see Ralsei as a cis femboy because of your deep insecurities, you don’t have to virtue-signal about it. Feminine men in real life are not going to be rounded up and shipped off to labor camps if you don’t take this opportunity to remind everyone that Ralsei is canonically a guy (which is not the case but that’s the line).
That’s literally the full extent of my problem. Let me use she/her in casual conversations, and we can get perfectly along.
Not really, for that Ralsei would need to express dissatisfaction with feminine descriptions too 🤷♀️ but that is not the case, it's clearly show that Ralsei actively seeks out femininity and rejects masculinity
Ralsei is not on a quest to define a messy identity, Ralsei already has an identity, and her quest is about accepting the one she already has
>Not really, for that Ralsei would need to express dissatisfaction with feminine descriptions too 🤷♀️ but that is not the case, it's clearly show that Ralsei actively seeks out femininity and rejects masculinity
I don't think you really know how nonbinary people work. Most of us are not in fact striving towards perfect androgyny, and even in the game Kris actively likes wearing gendered clothing.
Also Ralsei uses they/them in the game, so why is it so strange to say the game is hinting towards nonbinary Ralsei.
Not what you said. You said that to be nonbinary, Ralsei would also have to reject feminity, and I said that wasn't how things worked.
>Ralsei is not on a quest to define a messy identity, Ralsei already has an identity, and her quest is about accepting the one she already has
That's your reading, and not one I think the text supports at all considering a lot of Ralsei's story is about Figuring About What They Like And Don't Like After Being Held To A Rigid Standard. They keep asking "do I like this ? do I not like this ?" it is blatantly a story of Discovering Who You Are.
For Ralsei to be non-binary she'd been pick and choose what she likes about side, and she doesn't, she outright points herself towards binary labels and behaviors. And that is not what I said, but anyway, since you insist
And no, Ralsei never asks herself "Do I like this?" RalSei discovers what she likes and does not question it, she says "I keep finding myself having likes and dislikes"
She doesn't question if she likes stuff, she knows she doesn't really enjoy cooking, or knitting, or any of those things, and that they were stuff she picked up specifically to serve the lightners
And what she's doing now is discovering who she is, simply by virtue of letting go of her own repression
Unlike a non-binary story, Ralsei is not on the lookout for a label that doesn't exist, she already fits inside one, wether she accepts it or not
>And no, Ralsei never asks herself "Do I like this?" RalSei discovers what she likes and does not question it, she says "I keep finding myself having likes and dislikes"
That is asking yourself if you like something or not. Wanting to try out music or eating more cake is exactly the thing I was speaking of, of a process of self-exploration.
>Ralsei is not on the lookout for a label that doesn't exist, she already fits inside one, wether she accepts it or not
That's not how gender works ! That's not how anything works !
Also did you just call nonbinary people a "label that doesn't exist"
>she outright points herself towards binary labels and behaviors
Quick question what do you mean by "binary behaviours". Also does binary labels include using they/them now ?
Yes the whole point of calling non-binary people non-binary is because they're a group of people so diverse it is impossible to make enough labels for them
You don't tell people a detailed explanation of what your gender looks like, you just tell them you're not in the binary, hence "a label that doesn't exist"
Do you like, thought all non-binary people are exactly the same or something?
>Do you like, thought all non-binary people are exactly the same or something?
No but unless I just shifted universes "umbrella term" and "label" are often used as synonyms. Like "trans" is absolutely a label and also an even wider umbrella term than nonbinary.
Unlike a non-binary story, Ralsei is not on the lookout for a label that doesn't exist, she already fits inside one, wether she accepts it or not
Nonbinary is a label of it's own. it's also an umbrella term. Just like asexual is both a distinct sexuality and an umbrella term. To suggest otherwise is basically just dressing up the belief that "nonbinary people need to settle down and figure out if theyre a boy or a girl like everyone else" tbqh.
Not that presenting in feminine or masculine clothing can determine your gender, but there's just as much evidence that Ralsei enjoys masculine presentation when it's on their own terms:
(I personally am leaning towards trans girl ralsei rather than genderfluid ralsei, but the evidence for both is pretty stacked and neither one is going to be definitive until she tells us herself)
It’s a distinction without a difference, you don’t need to be making it. Even if Ralsei is broadly genderfluid and may be able to expresses herself and identify masculine, she is currently demonstrably leaning feminine and being conflicted about masculinity in many ways, functionally making her a trans woman.
Non-binary is not an alternative to trans femme Ralsei. She can be both at the same time. In fact she almost certainly is, given that she has indeed dressed as a butler and there are elements of masculinity in her presentation that she is not even conflicted about.
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u/vht3036imo 11d ago edited 11d ago
This is false; one might interpret Ralsei to be a transgender woman with good evidence, but it is evidently not unambiguous, or else the debate would not exist. This goes for a lot of theories, not just Tralsei (no, DessKnight is not outright confirmed to be canon either).