Gender/Ships in Deltarune
I don’t know any other media that handles gender the way that Deltarune does, not only does it reverse the trope that the non-human character is also the nonbinary one by making a every human we’ve seen gender neutral compared to the monsters and darkeners who do have binary genders. It also allows for these characters with binary genders to be gender non-conforming. Susie who is more masculine, and Ralsei who is more feminine. Not only that, but there are numerous characters who also go by multiple pronouns. For example, Lanino (He/They) and Elnina (She/They).
I do like how, in the most recent chapter, when you’re voting for the festival king and the festival queen that Kris can be either (and is seemingly willing to be either) and the game doesn’t like change the title to like flower royalty. A lot of people forget being nonbinary isn’t one solid thing, the label is an umbrella. There’s hardly any nonbinary people who nonbinary the exact same way. In the same section of the game, Susie tells Noelle and Kris to vote for her as Festival King. She is hoping for her and Noelle to be crowned as Festival Queen and Festival King. I have no way of knowing if this festival is very rigid in what they’d call the winning couple (because Rudy does state “maybe this year there’ll be two Festival Queens instead”) but it does stand out to me that Susie takes the initiative to tell her friends to vote her for the Festival King spot. Not to mention that Susie is just doing it for fun, as she knows she likely won’t win due to being kind of ostracized in her town.
I’d also like to state that; being homosexual/asexual in a heteronormative society is, in its own way, gender non-conforming. This does not mean every queer person identifies as being gender non-conforming. It’s just important to recognize that — to heterosexual and cisgender people — queer people are not conforming to the roles that society has placed upon their bodies. There is a wide array of queer characters in Deltarune, and because Hometown appears to be heteronormative, I figured this to be important to state.
On the topic of sexuality, I wanted to bring up how we discuss ships with nonbinary characters. Kris is included in a lot of popular ships. In specific I’m talking about with Berdly, Susie, Noelle, and Ralsei. There is a push to call any ship that includes a nonbinary character and a woman a lesbian relationship. On the other side, there is a push to call any ship that includes a nonbinary character and a man a gay relationship. Which is totally fine, there’s no issue with that. The issue comes when someone doesn’t see the relationship that way. Let’s take Berdly and Kris for example, because I’ve seen it more with them.
Let’s say somebody posts about Deltarune and they’re talking about their favorite ship, Kerdly (is that anyone’s favorite, like #1? 🤔) they decide to share their Headcanons. They headcanon Kris as whatever and they headcanon Berdly as a straight ally. Obviously, this might make some people uncomfortable. They might think this person is saying Kris is a girl, because they think that if someone dates a nonbinary person; that they have to identify as being queer in someway. This is because people have begun to see nonbinary as more of a binary third gender than what it is; nonbinary. A relationship with a nonbinary person is almost always queer, unless that enby states they don’t see their relationship as queer. What doesn’t connect for some people is this; Straight/Heterosexual people can be in queer relationships.
That might sound strange, but it’s true. Think of a straight asexual man. If he is in a relationship with someone; that relationship is queer. If a straight person is in a relationship with an enby; that relationship does not necessarily mean that they see their partner as “the opposite gender”. Just like how a gay person doesn’t see their nonbinary partner as “the same gender”.
This goes for all ships that include nonbinary characters as well. As long as you understand the nuances of gender identity; put them in whatever relationship you want (excluding the obvious). So if you see Kerdly as gay and Kralsei as straight, sure why not 👍
Although, I will say Kriselle would be lesbian because of Noelle. With what we’ve seen, she is not attracted to men.
Does this make sense?
