you cannot remove the queerness from utdr without fundamentally hurting the story. there is no label ever put on it but it's there and it has to be acknowledged.
Frisk, Chara, & Kris being non-binary instead of just–whatever the player wants them to be–adds to the themes of individuality and separation between them and the player. For Frisk & Chara, I've made a whole post about their role as narrative stand-ins but also individual characters. For Kris, it's actually ridiculous if you even attempt to claim they aren't non-binary–because they actively reject the player's influence and are the furthest thing from a self-insert. Monster Kid, Napstablook, etc are also genderless. In Deltarune, Seam also.
Also, Frisk considering to Flirt with literally anyone regardless of gender–and that being a game mechanic in and of itself–to me, implies this kid is most likely pan. Whatever you want to call it, their gender-blind flirting is in fact a game mechanic.
Alphys' and Undyne's sapphicness is the key to the pacifist ending. Without setting them up you literally cannot access the true pacifist ending. If it wasn't for Papyrus encouraging his lesbian bestie to send that damn letter, nothing would have happened. (Maybe indeed Flowey would've used another method to make time, but accessing the true lab with Alphys' permission would've been near impossible.) In fact, Alphys' bisexuality and her subsequent crushes are in fact a big part of her character. Not the most important–obviously, Alphys is one of the most layered characters in the game–but in hating herself, the lies she says to appease to Asgore first and Undyne later are undeniably a big part of what makes up her character.
Mettaton's allegorical transness kick-starts the events that lead to the creation of Flowey and the amalgamates. Without him, Alphys wouldn't be royal scientist. No determination experiments, no Flowey, no game. No Mettaton? Half of the hotland segments wouldn't exist, including the MTT resort in which the infamous it's raining somewhere else sequence happens. Mettaton also helps other trans people with their transition, like when he gifted his blue dress to the beautiful trans lioness after being done with it.
Mad Mew Mew's transness, even if unacknowledged by the main game, is constantly brought up by Toby since she appears in occasional News Letters, the alarm clock dialogue, etc, as a way to remind everyone that she exists and is as much s part of this found family as everyone else. She's also a sapphic, with her crush on Undyne also being acknowledged.
Asgore's implications of bisexuality and his inherent homoeroticism when talking about Rudy in the Alarm Clock Dialogue & Deltarune alike aren't game changing aspects of his character but nice touches that inform his relationships outside of Toriel.
The two Royal Guards in Hotland can only be spared through being set-up. Also, their romance cuts the player's nice cream supply.
Papyrus, though nothing game changing can be said about his sexuality, has a well-documented celebrity crush on Mettaton. Also, if you want to bring Toby's twitter joke into consideration, the skeleton brothers could in fact exist in the ace spectrum. And I say spectrum instead of outwardly asexual because Sans befriended our mom last night-
Even though Nice Cream Guy gives free Nice Cream to Burgerpants, he refuses to give free Nice Cream to the human. Burgerpants is so oblivious this could be considered flirting that I wasn't sure if I could count it, but then again Burgerpants is the nexus of a complex, interwoven web of non-reciprocated crushes and he's deeply unaware of the situation at large. This dynamic expands in Deltarune, with Bpants saying that Blue Ears is obsessed and has no sense of personal space–and the latter noting a love for his co-workers and giggling.
So then, In Deltarune, obviously, we have a deeply queer group of people and I think that this queer solidarity is really fundamental to it. I already mentioned the importance of Kris being non-binary .
Ralsei is generally understood to be maybe pan due to his general gender-blind openess towards especially Kris. I don't want to really get into his blushing when Kris gets too close or the fountain of love, because, well, he's representative of Asriel–but still. His queer-coding is undeniable.
But onto stronger candidates for this queer conversation, Noelle and Susie's dynamic adds two more sapphics into the utdr franchise. Noelle's crush has always been a massive, dare I say game-changing part of her character. Susie and Noelle met for the first time in Susie's first day of class. Susie had forgotten her pencil, and then Noelle noticed it and offered her candy-cane one. After this nice action of Noelle's, and also by the fact that she genuinely smiled at her, Susie developed a soft side for her and spared her from her bullying.
Then we have Berdly’s whole, “I'M the one Noelle and Susie are falling like dominoes for. And you know what dominoes means, Kris? ,,,You're next.” At another point he calls Noelle to ask her if she will be his date at the festival the next day. Susie tells him to leave her alone. And you can decide to respond that you'll go out with him or sing the Wrong Number song (in any case, Berdly is surprised). If you choose the first option, he says that Kris will have to compete with Noelle and Susie (thinking the two are into him). If it's the second then, he says that Kris will fall under his charm sooner or late. That also suggest a gender-blind attraction. But, in general, his crushes to Noelle and Susie respectively seem performative. And the queer reading that can be done here is undeniable, taking into consideration deltarune being steeped in themes of identity, performance, masks and unspoken internal conflict.
Now, mind you, every single side character can be viewed through a queer lense–in fact, it's damn near impossible not to do that. I just think that's wonderful. Like, have you seen Rouxls Kaard? Queen? Jevil? Spamton? Tenna? The queerness is oozing right through. The side characters in both Undertale and Deltarune are bursting with camp, flamboyance, theatricality–rarely do they conform into typical binaries/boxes wether those could refer to gender, sexuality, or like. Morality man idk.
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