Being a name made up of wholecloth and not necessarily mapping neatly onto real-life names (although I have seen a fic where "Ralph" is used as a stand-in), "Ralsei" is, theoretically, a gender-neutral name. Plus, there are a number of transfem Asriel stories where she doesn't change her name either. Yet, I can totally understand if Ralsei wants to change her name when she finally leaves the closet, in keeping with her experience being an allegory for real-world trans experience.
So, do you think Ralsei will change her name in the future? And if so, what is your guess as to her new name, and what would your personal preference be? (For the record, in the fic I mentioned earlier, the Ralsei stand-in Ralph changes her name to Raly when she transitions, because it's a fic written post-Ch5)
That's the strange thing: among all the things Ralsei has demonstrated discomfort with so far, her name is not one of them. And I don't find any of the given alternatives by the game or the fandom at large to be satisfactory, either. Perhaps that's one of the psychological sticking points for people who aren't happy with the game pursuing this form of her character arc (when they're not being outright disingenuous about it); that "Ralsei" is not being handled like a deadname-to-be, even with it being so obviously derivative of somebody else.
I do wonder about that because it's such a clear and self-evident signifier of a character's dissatisfaction with their current identity, and yet none of the three prominent examples that come to mind -- including Ralsei -- seem to bother with it. Is there ever such implications for Jax? I have yet to watch TADC, but nobody's mentioned anything like it. Bridget, due to fraught prior writing choices, did not have this either. Very strange. Every other implied trans woman in recent memory is already a self-actualized woman, and the concept of a deadname never comes up. I'm coming to the conclusion that I don't like this blanket omission that's happened, and I hope Deltarune bucks the trend with what remaining runtime it has left to deliver.
Now, it did occur to me that the game has set up a potential swerve here, wherein Ralsei adopts your [%VESSELNAME%], as that is currently unused while your [%FILENAME%] is. But that would also read weird, not only because god knows how many people gave theirs a masculine name with no expectation of how it would be used, but also because it would be you defining who she is, without (the illusion of) mutual consent.
And the part that makes this doubly complicated is. I just think Ralsei is a pretty name already............... That's a girls name to me in the first place. It's girls. I *do* like it and I ultimately wouldn't mind too much if the character kept it, despite my previously stated misgivings.
You see her? Look at her.
Beautiful and wonderful Ralsei alreadys... I will cry when she finally properly chooses her happiness and becomes even more powerful. She can do no wrong as long as she does this.
