#transei

[ralseipastries]

she looks like a dog begging for boiling water on the stove

[junkyardshrub]

btw Ralsei's menu flower is Artemisia which symbolizes feminine wisdom in flower language. just btw.

[tatdritt]

Hot take but I think transmasc Ralsei is a completely valid interpretation of his story with just slightly different themes and I think all versions of trans Ralsei are great

[terameters]

You know, the whole idea that Transei is only people going "this male character is feminine, therefore this character is woman" falls apart when you consider that Transei only became popular after Chapters 3 and 4. It wasn't even that trans headcanons were unpopular back then, Noelle was (and I think still is) a very most popular character to headcanon as trans. That just wasn't the case with Ralsei.

Obviously some people believed it beforehand (the Ralsei-like scene was sometimes used as Transei evidence even back then), but the general consensus, even among people who believed certain unconfirmed characters (e.g. Noelle) would be canonically trans, was that Ralsei was cis male that happened to be feminine. I saw multiple "Deltarune Characters ranked by transness" things during the Chapter 2 era, and Ralsei was usually towards the bottom, usually considered "GNC but not trans."

No, Chapter 1 era stuff like that Treesicle "Ralsei is a woman" video doesn't count. That idea was that Ralsei was a cis woman that the characters assumed was male. A lot of people who believed that quit after Chapter 2, and I don't think any of them even considered the possibility of Transei. Honestly, that actually was an example of people thinking a feminine character had to be female.

It was Chapter 3 and 4 (and now 5) expanding on Ralsei's character arc that caused Transei to become popular. Beforehand, most people didn't quite understand what Ralsei's arc was, usually tying it only into the meta aspects of Deltarune. The new chapters make it clear that Ralsei's arc has also to do with them not liking the assigned fate and (implicitly gendered) role they actively want to change despite (seemingly) being raised their "entire life" to be this role and believe it is unchangeable. Ralsei could be a rather masculine character, and that would still a very trans story.

Speaking for myself, as someone who is trans and realized it six years ago, I never fully bought into Transei (as an actual possibilty, and not just a headcanon) until Chapter 5, and Ralsei didn't become more feminine in Chapter 5. I just realized the actual nature of their arc better and that made me realize how trans-coded it actually was.

[calliandraaa]

I think one of the reasons I feel so passionate about transfem Ralsei is because chapter 5 genuinely captures the closeted trans struggle so well not even as an allegory but as the actual textual arc of the character. The idea that if you don’t follow the rules, if you don’t present how you’re “supposed to,” it could genuinely ruin your entire life

In this case the prophecy is a stand in for family, friends, broader society which have all assigned you a gender that you have to present and perform as even if you don’t want to, and transitioning means you risk losing all that support. That’s why it hurts to see people denying that it could happen or even saying it would be bad writing or ruin their femboy identity, because they’re doing the same thing. They have this role for them as a cute uwu femboy in their head and they get mad at the suggestion that the role could change.

[althea562]

noelle flirting with ralsei

[ralseipastries]

WHICH COULD MEAN ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

[ralseipastries]

made this last night in like ten minutes