which chapter do you think ralsei will come out as a girl in because i cant work out whether it makes more sense for it to happen in chapter after all the setup or chapter 7 because that girl is very repressed.
I'm gonna bet on chapter 6, and here's why:
1) Ralsei did not have a whole "oh I don't know could I really be a girl? that never occured to me" moment - ie, as others have pointed out she's not an egg! She's closeted. So at least she isn't unaware of the desire to be a princess
2) We got two direct drops for the word 'princess' straight up, no beating around the bush, once by Ralsei admitting she would like to be one and once by Flowery calling her one while handing her a trans flag, something she does not deny or get mad about. And by the end of the chapter, the pronouns are updated! This is already in motion, she is Already changing how she wants to be viewed, just feels more like taking careful steps rather than jumping in headfirst.
3) We have unfortunately seen enough of what happens when a transfem character's arc ends in transition. The arc is taken fully out of the author's hands to dismiss it, to deny transfemininity, to claim it came out of nowhere and made no sense, to claim the character wouldn't have wanted that (as if characters just exist in an alternate reality with their own wants outside of what they're written as and the author is just there to report to you what happened. Lol. Lmao). I think overall, Toby is not only a good writer, but crucially a cognizant one.
He's very in touch with how fandom and audience reception works and he has time and again done things to nudge any particularly egregious interpretations away (see, tea theory gaining popularity → rotten tea → Ralsei's tea healing more after the ch4 it's okay not to smile scene) (see, Ralsei is just Asriel theories gaining popularity → scene with Ralsei saying how they like their face even if we think it's similar to [Asriel] and Kris laughing it off like it's ridiculous → scene with Kris pointing out to Susie quite insistently how different Asriel and Ralsei look → scene with Asgore being like yeah I thought so at first glance but actually not really).
I think Toby is well aware of how transfem arcs can get dismissed and he's treading the line well already. We aren't doing a 180, we're setting the scene for it slowly but firmly: establishing the flags, the lost girl motif, the double princess mention. It's a good progression and in the same chapter where she's called princess and says she would like to be a princess we also encounter mad mew mew/pink AND we see Ralsei change pronouns to they/them.
It's already moving the train has left the station. We are mid-transition.
So I really think we're gonna get the arc by the end of ch6 at least so that we have a whole chapter that anyone who wants to play the game has to actually play through with Ralsei being fully out in her undeniable transfem glory. And they have to sit with a whole chapter of her till it sinks in that denying it is just denying the text. At least, that's my reasoning.
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