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An UnderTale/DeltaRune Analysis

Since DeltaRune came out, I’ve been sucked right back into the Undertale fandom. Unfortunately, while I’ve seen tons of great fanart and interesting theories relating to the game, it seems the introduction of a third playable human character who isn’t explicitly male or female has also somewhat re-sparked the debate about whether the genders of Frisk, Chara, and now Kris are up to the player’s interpretation. 

On one side, you have people saying to just respect everyone’s headcanons about these characters, down to deciding their pronouns. On the other, you have people saying the three characters being non-binary is part of their thematic purpose in the games, on top of being positive canon representation for a rarely recognized group.

I fall into the latter camp, and this post will explain why. (WARNING: long and text-heavy post)

There’s been a massive debate on KFC’s gender for a while now, and since there’s so much mis-information I feel as if I’m obligated to provide all the evidence in favor of KFC being enby, simply to help trans rep and smash the idea of their genders being “up for interpretation”, so here goes nothing.

KFC Is Referred To With Exclusively  They/Them Pronouns

FRISK

While Frisk has the least examples of having their pronouns stated due to the fact that they’re usually referred to in second person however it does happen.

CHARA When reading this keep in mind that Chara was close to their family and the monsters, meaning they had to have known their pronouns, especially Asriel seeing as Asriel and Chara are described as inseparable and being liked siblings.

Anyways let’s get to the pronoun usage. 

KRIS While Kris is the most common out of the 3 humans to be misgendered as a guy nothing in game suggests that they are one. The people who state Kris’s pronouns are people who are close to Kris, just like with Chara. 

And before you say that Ralsei wouldn’t know Kris’s pronouns, well Ralsei knows Kris and Susies names without either one of them telling him. He knows more than he lets on, and pronouns are hand in hand with names, something he already knew.  (Also I couldn’t have gotten EVERY example of they/them being used for these characters so if you want to see what I missed then watch this video). 

KFC Aren’t Self-Inserts Or Ambiguous In Any Way

FRISK

In the case of Frisk not only are they shown to have their own personality  but they’re also directly stated to not be a self insert. The entire plot twist on the true pacifist route was that Frisk was Frisk, not us, if their use of they/them had to do with player interpretation then their pronouns would change once their name is revealed, as not only is it hand in hand with your name but it would help further demonstrate their true personality, however their pronouns dont change. Everyone still uses they/them for Frisk. 

CHARA As far as Chara goes they shouldn’t even be able to be considered a self insert in any way, as they’re their own character, and are directly stated as such. There’s not really much to say here, as it should be self explanatory. 

Before you bring up the “Toby said we should name Chara our own name” then I suggest you view the tweet without being taken out of context. 

“Anything else” is obviously referring to the true name, aka Chara. KRIS

Kris is probably the most direct example of being the opposite of a self insert. Kris literally rips out our soul to escape from us.

They’re also stated as not acting like themself since we took control of them.

Our heart is heavily implied to not belong to them as well.

It’s also worth noting that in the case of all 3 humans they are enby-coded in the sense that they’re all androgynous and use they/them. Characters like Frisk symbolically represent non binary identities as well though. They wear blue clothes with pink stripes, aka the two binary gender colors.

People like to say that they would all have to say “im x and im x gender”, but the truth is that’s not how video games work. We don’t assume Sans is a girl despite him being masc and using he/him. You portray gender in video games through pronouns and physical features because that’s the only way to do so in a medium like video games. So with this in mind it further proves the idea of KFC being enby. Not to mention that if the player was supposed to choose the genders of the three humans then we would be able to do so in the naming screen/goner maker.

Other Characters Are Enby In The Undertale Series

Something that’s overlooked but very important in this discussion is that there are multiple other instances of enby characters in Undertale and Deltarune. For example, Napstablook uses they/them.

Monster Kid also goes by they/them. 

In the case of Deltarune Seam is also non-binary. Both games also have cases of regular npcs/enemies using they/them, like the ice wolf. 

How Does Toby Feel About All Of This?

While at first it may not seem like Toby has commented on these discussions this is actually the opposite of the truth. Toby has discussed his views on the topic. The most obvious case of this is an interview question and his response to it.

Toby skipped the question because of not only how baffling the question was worded but because his enby characters aren’t ambiguous. If they were he would’ve had no problem responding to the interviewer (who was assuming the characters were ambiguous)  stating that their genders are up for interpretation. He didn’t though, and I think the reason why is pretty clear. Additionally he directly states pronouns of enby characters multiple times. An example of this can be seen in this old post of Tobys, he states Frisk is androgynous here.

This isn’t exclusive to Frisk however, Toby has also stated Chara’s pronouns. This happened when he was discussing the reason they aren’t included in any of the merch.

Or when discussing Undertale’s plot in an old interview.

Even Temmie uses they/them for Chara as well.

Toby has stated Kris’s pronouns before as well.

Toby isn’t afraid of correcting others on pronoun usage of his characters either. Just take a look at some of the misgendering on streams and how Toby responds. 

This rule even applies to Toby himself, as he has corrected himself on accidental misgendering of his own enby characters. This is seen through a time when a fan pointed out the pronoun usage of Napstablook and Monster Kid in the Undertale Artbook, Toby immediately responded and changed the pronoun usage for both characters in the following version.

Why Does This All Matter?

You may not see this as a big deal but the truth is that it is. Non binary people barely have any rep as it is, and having said rep being erased by a majority of the fandom is a big deal. Not only is misgendering KFC giving a ton of trans individuals dysphoria but most of the arguments in favor of gender-ambiguous KFC are rooted in transphobic beliefs, such as they/them being a “placeholder” pronoun. 

TL;DR