hihey! im ruse -- they/them filipino adult -- enamored with that one godawful mike trio from the deltas rune, sometimes multifandom -- audhd & avpd, english isnt my first language so i might sound off
"ralsei is actually the girl in the prophecy" no. "actually lancer fills the lonely prince role so ralsei can transition." nope! "gaster or whoever alters the prophecy so that the prince is a princess!" "there's a secret hidden prophecy panel about ralsei's transition" "flowery knows ralsei is transfem because he saw it in the prophecy" NO! "the prophecy–" we do not need the evil and constricting rules that bind this world to a tragedy: gender affirming edition okay the point of the transitioning is to go against the prophecy
i actually think it's cool when a non-binary character isn't treated as a character who just spawned into the world completely and perfectly ungendered. a lot of you just fucking hate transfem enbies i think
often you will see things online where you just have to be like "what a strange thing to say" or "i don't think that's true :)" to yourself and try to move on or you will lose your mind
Im a fan of the headcanon already but id like to hear your reasons behind transfem small mike..
Of course! I’m always happy to talk about her… I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about it so I hope this answer can provide a comprehensive explanation of the hows and whys.
One of the most compelling point of interest about the Green Pippins since she graced her presence in the Deltarune fandom’s collective imagination has always been her fraught and seemingly contradictory relationship with her Mike persona, so it makes sense that likewise, many other people have invested in their own interpretations (often specifically trans ones) of this aspect of her character. Being a minor NPC leaves place for a lot of uncertainty and “wiggle room” so to speak when it comes to headcanons and the like, and there are definitely more popular takes out there than the one I’m about to talk about… even so and for whoever wants to listen whether they're already either familliar or partial to it or not, I want to build a solid case for a transfeminine reading of her character, how her philosophy is contrasted by the other Mike impersonators and what we can glean from the interactions between these different actors.
The first and most readily apparent trait of Small Mike’s is her repeated forceful assertion that she is Mike - the only Mike, the realest Mike, even. Her suspicious insistence followed by the reveal of her actual identity, as well as there being actually three “Mikes” in total, works as an ironic subversion of this statement, but it also serves to highlight her first vice: her competitiveness, and her attitude towards the other Mikes… which I will touch upon later.
Up to that point, it would be easy to explain that fixation and possessiveness as her deriving enjoyment from the simple act of being Mike, and desire to keep indulging in this performance as such. This tracks with her conviction that “being Mike” is inherently desirable. “If people knew there was more than one Mike... Everybody would want to be Mike!!!”
And yet, her dialogue is parasited with seemingly contradictory statements. She tires herself quickly as Mike, describes the costume as cramped, and overall seems to undertake the role of Mike as a job rather than a hobby like her counterparts. When presented with the possibility of being Mike “for as long as they want”, she retorts they “never WANTED to be Mike”. Despite this, she immediately comes back to the Mike room to compete for the role again… So which one is it? Does she truly find roleplaying as Mike enjoyable in of itself? Or is there another motive that compels her to chase after it?
One must look no further than to her response after “winning” the mini-game. First, she predictably basks in her victory - then says any of those infamous lines: “Now I'll get to [give Tenna an antenna massage/have Tenna's shock therapy/sing rock-a-bye biiby to Tenna's cupboard/organize Tenna's nose drawer] all by myself…”
Compounded with the emphasis she places on the role of Mike as Tenna’s “favorite” and assistant throughout her battle dialogue, plus her disheartened reaction after learning of Tenna’s absence in chapter 4 and/or 5, it would be easy to pin the attention she gets as Mike from him as her main incentive. While Pluey keeps the costume for fun, Mipi herself is only spurred to put it on if Tenna's there ; and even in the cases where he's not, his presence is still recurring in her mind, a quality the others do not express when it comes to their Mike-ing out.
Although for now it may seem like I'm just propagandizing for Battenna, I feel like this contrast between the way each Mike interacts with this performance reveals a great deal about Mipi's psyche. So let's dig into it some more.
Pluey, of course, immediately stands out as the most non-Mike conforming of them all, even from the very beginning. Her Mike costume largely diverges from the other two, on top of being cat-like, it's also the only one who doesn't include the masculine suit that's prominent in both Cowboy and Small Mike's (minus the bow tie).
She even strikes this pose upon being called by her name - a name that she chose, who veers away from the explicitly male-gendered “Mike” name she is supposed to adopt.
It's this veering away from the traditionally masculine presentation associated with Mike into something more ambiguous, or even outright feminine, that makes Pluey read as a transfeminine character herself. She likes this costume in spite of how different it is from Mipi's vision of Mike, and actively seeks it out for its own sake. More than fun, she sees this “performance” as inherently fulfilling, and by far, she stands out as a prime example of uninhibited self-expression among the Mike crowd.
Likewise, Cowboy Mike also gets a lot of joy and fun from being Mike - though they distinctly seem to approach it more as a game than a representation of their truest self. Jongler stands at an interesting middle point on the Mike spectrum: while their presentation follows Small Mike's most evidently, they often express displeasure at having to follow these directions, instead wishing to “say the lines they want to say” rather than the specific Motormouth persona they're ordered to follow. They find the jacket uncomfortable, perhaps hinting that they would alter their costume if given the chance. Later on however, as Pluey becomes more affirming of her own identity, they follow her example, experimenting with a new name and new lines. They feel constricted by Small Mike's vision and find more fun in a performance that's more free-form and experimental, encouraged to step out of the mold by Pluey’s own initiative. It also seems like a good time to point out that Jongler is largely interpreted to be non-binary, as they almost exclusively use they/them pronouns, which would echo the idea of them not wanting to follow a strict idea of who Mike should be.
That isn't to say this persona is a part of their identity in the same way that it is for Pluey ; rather, they seem to engage with it as a sort of play, or hobby ; one they certainly wouldn't mind sharing with others (“* Then how's is they's supposed to be a Mike, too?”).
Overall, both of them stand in sharp contrast to Mipi. Pluey goes against everything that's “Mike-like” in Mipi's book, while also being the most self-actualized component of the trio. Cowboy Mike is free-form and indulgent where Mipi is rigid and restrained. Crucially, neither of them seem to undertake this performance for anyone other than themselves ; while Mipi seems to have Tenna's name on her lips every time she puts the costume on.
Because for Mipi, Mike is neither something for her to have fun with, nor a conduit for her own self-expression, it's something she has to, needs to get right for Tenna ; or at least what she thinks he'll respond to. Reliant on external validation, she puts a lot of effort and rigor in this role, looks down on any transgression, and even though her prioritization of accuracy at all costs should put her at the top, it seems to work against her in the end.
The Pluey incident is a damning example in this regard. While Mipi, and the type of fans she represents in that scene, are technically correct in that “Pluey” stands outside of the Mike mythos, they are eventually rebuked by the word of god himself, Tenna/Toby. Rather than a blow at Mipi's expertise, I read this interaction as highlighting the futility of her enterprise, in that by sticking so closely to the most “reasonable” correct version of Mike, she would end up missing the forest for the trees ; that maybe there is more authentic value found in Pluey’s genuinity and even Jongler’s amateurism than she might think. Despite this, she retreats to her prior viewpoint, asserting that her way is the only one that would please Tenna… even if it means denying herself the thrills and little joys her partners let themselves have. Never mind the fact that it hardly pays off, and even ceases to be relevant in a scenario where Tenna is out of Castle Town.
Looking at all of this, I get the feeling that there's a pretty clear message here, one that seems to fall in accordance with UTDR's ethos and its contemporaries. Like the Prophecy, “Mike”, as the impersonators conceptualize it, can be likened to a sort of traditional canon, a structure one may choose to either reinterpret, break off or adhere to closely… perhaps to the detriment of your own sense of self.
Of course, Mipi and her peers act first and foremost as archetypes, with her specifically being a parody of a purist type of person prominent in the Deltarune fandom, and it’s possible her character might not evolve past this point. Still, I can't help but entertain the idea of her slowly loosening up and letting herself have other options over the remaining chapters, not being so fixated on the attention of a single person… I want to see her a happier and more fulfilled person, someone who can conceptualize her self outside of the very small confines of who Mike is supposed to be, like Jongler ; or who questions if she even has to be Mike at all, like Pluey. I can only wonder if her character will ever improve to such an extent, but if there is a happy ending for her, I believe it would ring like this.
Earlier, I wrote out ways you could read either Pluey or Cowboy Mike as transgender allegories - when it comes to Mipi, I'm obligated to say that the reading I just presented doesn't necessarily point to a specifically transfeminine experience… However, I do think it makes for a more cohesive narrative when supported with Pluey's and CM's as aforementioned. Furthermore, I've always personally found Mipi's characterization to share a lot of DNA with the few transfeminine characters of the UTDR canon. Ralsei too starts out as a by-the-book follower of the Prophecy, constrained in an archetype that she nevertheless has a duty to carry out, subjecting her fellow heroes and Darkners to the same expectations she must fulfill. It's through seeing other's examples of their defiance of it that she is able to go against the princely role she was given. In Mipi, I also see Mad Dummy from Undertale, a similarly temperamental and bossy character who yearns to fully embody its physical form, yet seems perpetually dissatisfied with it, and thus lashes out at others ; that is until she finds a body that is truly hers, with which she can begin to go through the motions of growing self-acceptance and self-love. While likely unintentional, those parallels give a specifically transfeminine hue to Mipi's character once laid-out, at least in my opinion.
Supplementary material
Here's a small compilation of transfem mipi posts made by me and others which you can find here :) I'll try to update it over time so watch out for that...
not to be a conspiracy theorist but quite honestly it seems intentional and perfectly in line with the way fatphobia & glorification of anorexia/edtwt is making a big comeback lately, like, "lets find another way to make fat people an enemy by insinuating fat people are inherently right-wing 4chan nazis"
It’s so sad that students are now relying so heavily on AI for writing essays because they’re missing out on the best part of writing an essay which is when you’re a few paragraphs in and you just reach that flow state where your thought process becomes one with the essay and you’re slamming the keys so hard that you’re on the verge of destroying your laptop. I used to get high off of that shit
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