hear that whine? that's your CRT asking for a walk!!

CHAPTER 1 During the events of chapter 1 of Deltarune, most of Ralsei's story arc centres around trying to get along with Susie so a lot of that won't be covered here. The main things I want to cover are Ralsei's explanation of the prophecy, and the changes in their appearance across the chapter. Most of the stuff here regarding Ralsei's presentation and gender identity is largely subtext or mostly meaningless without extra context so I'll try to be brief.

When we first meet Ralsei in Castle town, they give us what they later admit is a "summary" of the prophecy of Deltarune. While quite a few things are left out of this version, one interesting thing that is left in from the original version is that in Ralsei's version, he is the only one of the three heroes to be implicitly gendered, and is referred to as a prince, while the human and monster are left much more ambiguous in both role and gender. While it's unclear whether or not Ralsei themself decided on this intentionally, it does both speak to Ralsei directly tying their identity to the prophecy, as well as the continued idea of the prophecy implying he is masculine, which I will explore later in the segment for chapter 4.

The other notable moment in this opening scene is when, after the fight with Lancer ends and Ralsei returns, Susie demands they take off their hood, which is the first time we see Ralsei's more detailed sprites. This on it's own is quite interesting, as notably in all representations we have seen of the prophecy, Ralsei is wearing the same cloak they take off in this scene, which is never seen physically in the game again. This does a good job at reinforcing Susie's accidental defiance of the prophecy, and also foreshadows her repeating this again at the end of the chapter with Ralsei's hat. The hood itself is interesting too, as this is how Ralsei initially chooses to show themself, beginning a pattern of Ralsei deliberately hiding or obscuring things, with it being removed so early being clearly unplanned on their part.

Now is probably the best time to talk about Ralsei's standard chapter 1 design. This look is quite iconic for them, with a consistent colour scheme that fits quite well with the outfit and suggests a mysterious, magical, sprite-like creature. The shape language of this design is also quite consistent, with lots of of ragged edges and points in their hat, fur detailing, and along the bottom of their robe. From behind the scenes concepts and things Toby has discussed, Ralsei's hat is meant to be casting possibly magical shadows over their face and body that obscure their appearance. In fact, the only components of this design that show Ralsei's actual features are their fanged mouth, glasses, and the hat accomodating for their horns. Although from a meta perspective this is clearly meant to obfuscate Ralsei's resemblance to the Dreemurr family - particularly Asriel - from the player, it also displays a continued shyness and reluctance on Ralsei's part to show their true face and appearance, which they comment on later in chapter 2:

Before moving on to the very end of the chapter, there are a couple of other small tidbits that I thought were worth adding in. Early on in chapter 1 you can famously find the game's first armour piece, the White Ribbon, in a chest in the Maze of Death, which Ralsei suggests Kris should wear by way of tutorial. Equipping it to Ralsei however causes them to blush and say this:

This on its own is obviously nothing special or noteworthy, but it serves as a bit of an introduction to Ralsei's frequent expressions of and draw towards femininity throughout the rest of the entire game, and is also a bit indicative of how Ralsei tends to express femininity. In this scene, while they are perfectly happy to wear the Ribbon and clearly enjoy looking "pretty" or "cute", they initially do not outwardly suggest equipping it to them and instead say that Kris should do it rather than them. Kris, notably, is someone shown to be (at least comparatively to Ralsei) a lot more secure in their gender identity, who is a lot more willing to experiment and show it off in the dark world. Another thing worth mentioning at this point to save mentioning later is how Ralsei is continued to be both implicitly and explicitly gendered in the game's menus, especially their title in the POWER menu. This is a continued (although not always consistent) pattern throughout the game that has only recently been broken with the use of they/them pronouns for their Level 5 "Dark Vine" title in chapter 5.

This idea of Ralsei being percieved or intended to be perceived a certain way by the Prophecy, the world and the game itself will continue to evolve as we go through the next few chapters. While on the topic of Ralsei being gendered, I'l also briefly mention here Lancer's large roster of insults/nicknames he gives Ralsei across the game, almost all of which end in the word boy as a suffix. I have seen people particularly point out "eggboy" as one that may be relevant to this theory, but on that count, that's probably the piece of evidence most likely to just be a coincidence.

finally getting to the end of chapter 1, after defeating the Spade King, when Kris and Susie are about to leave, Ralsei stops them, and begins awkwardly mumbling about how much they appreciated getting to know them, before Susie complains she can't hear them properly and insists they stop mumbling into their hat, which causes Ralsei to finally remove their hat for the first time, showing their actual face.

This is the big landmark point for Ralsei's growth in their friendship with Kris and Susie throughout the chapter, and also comes as a parallel with Susie moving her hair out of her face earlier in the scene, as both of them have opened up a bit more as people. This is also quite fitting as known Rule Breaker and Fate Changer (tm) Susie is once again the catalyst for Ralsei to make this big decision that helps them express themself more as a person. It's also noteworthy that this is also once again a spur-of-the-moment decision, as without Susie pushing them to do this, Ralsei would likely have just kept the hat on. CHAPTER 2 before we get into the weeds again for chapter 2, let's start off by breaking down some noteworthy things about Ralsei's new design that gets properly debuted this chapter.

Although Ralsei's outfit remains largely the same, the bottom of their robe is no longer as tattered and now has a much simpler, cleaner look, along with now having black sleeves as opposed to the weird sometimes-there-sometimes-not green ones that ch1 Ralsei sports. The main big change is that Ralsei's head and face is now visible, making their resemblance to the Dreemurrs much more obvious, and also gives their overworld sprite a lot more colour with pastel detailing around their head and body. Toby Fox has previously stated that part of the initial reasoning behind removing Ralsei's hat from their design was to make it easier for them to emote more, and indeed Ralsei has a much wider range of sprites and facial expressions, such as in a few brief scenes where Ralsei is shown without their glasses to have pinkish eyes, along with pink eyeshadow. (The pink eyes also may or may not be contacts of some sort due to the face sprite from the hot spring in chapter 5). The new hatless sprites, while they don't have as consistent of a design as chapter 1, give Ralsei a lot more range of emotion and expression and help communicate their continually evolving character. Ralsei can comment on this in castle town when Susie asks them where their hat is, to which they ask if they look cuter without the hat on. From this point onward, mention of Ralsei's hat often indicates a lot of Ralsei's past or current insecurities with how they look, and tends to be the highest most obvious layer of subtext around Ralsei's identity, with the coat rack npc in chapter 4 joking about Ralsei not knowing if their friends will accept them without it. Of note, while many things in the game do change to accommodate Ralsei's new appearance (such as their portrait in the EQUIP and POWER menus), their icon in the battle menu and overworld health bar does not, still depicting Ralsei with their hat on, which Ralsei even makes a snippy meta comment about in chapter 5 if you return to the wardrobe after their outfit change. This in particular makes it seem almost as if the game expected Ralsei to still be wearing their hat. Even their corresponding firework pattern in cyber world uses their hat!

For a lot of chapter 2, we begin to get a feel for the role and status quo Ralsei has settled into regarding their presentation and identity. They still enjoy wearing ribbons, as noted within a lot of their item text, and they in fact seem to have developed a passion for dressing up along with the rest of the gang, such as their doctor and nurse outfits, along with many others in future chapters. A notable part of this new status quo that is less positive however, is chapter 2's recurring theme of Ralsei being forgotten about or ignored by characters other than Kris and Susie, as Queen, Berdly and Noelle rarely acknowledge their presence. Even Ralsei as a character takes a bit of a backseat this chapter, as they don't really speak up too much in group cutscenes, and spend a long time away from focus as they and Susie go on their own adventure leaving Kris to team up with Noelle instead for a large chunk of the game. This however, never seems to bother Ralsei too much as they never really complain about this, and can even take being offhandedly being called Kris' lackey by Berdly as a compliment depending on the player's choices.

One thing that I should mention before I start talking about the next big piece of evidence is Ralsei's Butler costume from Queen's mansion. This is probably Ralsei's most masculine outfit they wear throughout the entire game, and is one of the only masculine things they actively seem to enjoy wearing (at least when they wear it in chapter 2). Although I have seen people discuss this as possible evidence for bigender or genderfluid Ralsei theories/headcanons, along with another line in chapter 5 I'll bring up later (more power to you honestly queer theories and headcanons of all types are awesome), I personally don't think it's all that great as evidence for this, since suits and businesswear in general are a bit more gender neutral these days, especially considering how much Ralsei disproportionately engages with femininity over this single instance of slightly masculine clothing. Rather, I think the Butler costume tends to be a bit more representative of Ralsei's willingness to be subservient to other people (mostly Kris) and the persona they tend default to as "helpful fancy prince-boy", especially considering how quick they are to discard it on their own in chapter 5 when this happens again and call their previous enjoyment of it "context based". To briefly note as well, this is the only one of Ralsei's costumes (besides the clearly comedic horse outfit) that the normally pro-freedom-of-expression Susie objects to them wearing. Again, apologies if you think I handled that badly and have a different interpretation of what that means for Ralsei.

One niche but actually quite big piece of evidence regarding transfem Ralsei surrounds the mannequin that can be bought from an Addison in Cyber city for 300 Dark Dollars. This mannequinn, which is shaped like Spamton, is shown in-game wearing a dress, that looks almost identical to a dress used in Undertale to directly convey trans identity in characters. If you didn't know, you might remember Mettaton wearing this dress in his big theatre scene in Hotland. to the left of this room is a lion npc wearing masculine clothes who talks about Mettaton's show and wanting to wear a dress like him, and feeling discouraged about it. If you come back later post-pacifist the lion will be wearing the dress and tell you that mettaton gave it, and express happiness. This same lion npc appears in Deltarune, still wears dresses and is explicitly referred to as a waitress, implying she transitioned. Mettaton is also essentially canonically transmasc, which you can find out more on by reading his diaries at his house (tldr ghosts are non-binary until they possess a body and mettaton wanted a gnc male stylised EX body that he gets in his boss fight).

Anyway, aside from the fact that a Spamton mannequin is wearing this dress (which is the perview of many more talented and knowledgeable people than me to discuss transmasc Spamton, there are great videos on the subject), the mannequinn serves as a nearly completely useless armour item that only Kris can equip, which gives niche use in the Spamton fight. However, you can still attempt to equip it to other party members, and while Noelle and Susie just seem confused, if you try to equip it to Ralsei, they say this:

which I think speaks volumes as to where this arc for Ralsei is going. The next part I want to discuss is probably Ralsei's most important scene of the chapter that really helps us get a feeling for where their head is at during chapter 2, which is of course, the acid lake scene in the mansion with Kris and Ralsei after Susie splits off from the party. After completing some puzzles, in this scene Ralsei decides to take the opportunity to talk to Kris/the Player about how they're feeling and how things are going so far, including the dialogue about "hiding his face so you wouldn't see" that I brought up earlier, as well as their opinions on their newfound appreciation of Susie and friendship, which they cap off with: "and of course, Kris. It's nice that... you're you." which of course has a few layers regarding the player's dynamic with Kris. If you respond with "It's nice that Ralsei is Ralsei", they will be surprised to be appreciated but flattered at the compliment before saying this:

with a smiling but slightly thoughtful and pained expression, before cutting themself off and saying they got off track and to just enjoy the ride. this is the first big hint the game gives you that even now that they are not explicitly hiding themself physically, Ralsei very much still has unresolved identity issues. Before we move on properly to chapter 3, now is also probably a good time to talk about Ralsei's habit of hiding and compartmentalising important information until they don't have any choice but to reveal it. While there definitely could be evidence for this in chapter 1, this becomes a prominent trait of Ralsei's noticably in chapter 2, and a lot of the exposition around Ralsei throughout the game so far revoloves around how much they are willing to say and do depending on the situation with the knowledge they have, from things like darkners to turning to stone, to the Roaring, to their big chapter 3 monologue about how Dark worlds work, to more recent revelations like Ralsei knowing fire spells we don't have access to and the sheer breadth and depth of their meta knowledge about Deltarune's game mechanics. A lot of this and their compulsions around not telling people information are explained in their big blowout with Susie in chapter 4, but it's important to note that this also includes things about themself that they hide, from their struggles with staying happy all the time to their room being empty, so a lot of the evidence we have for Ralsei's struggle with personhood and gender identity is wrapped up in this too, given that they only really properly float the idea to Us and Kris a couple of times, in scenes that are usually private, and even then they get nervous and backpedal mid-discussion. CHAPTER 3 Ralsei starts off in chapter 3 already in an interesting place, where Susie accidentally pressing them about the festival leads them to have to explain how Dark Worlds and Darkners work. This also causes them to attempt to start rationalizing why it's okay that this system might cause them to be percieved by lightners as having less inherent value as a person which Susie attempts to shut down and console them on before they are interrupted by Tenna.

This finally begins to make clear where some of Ralsei's issues are stemming from regarding identity and purpose. With their knowledge of how Dark worlds work, in Ralsei's mind they are an inherently secondary and lesser being who only exists to serve the purposes of the other two heroes in saving the world and that any wants or desires they may have beyond than that are selfish and to be ignored in favour of being helpful and useful. Which is so many levels of fucked up and untrue, but is nonetheless the core foundation of Ralsei's system of belief, particularly when it comes to how Ralsei thinks of and expresses themself as a person. This concept goes on to be part of the crux of Ralsei's arc in the game so far.

Touching briefly on the first of Tenna's first 2 game boards, we see that although given the opportunity to freely control their game character (which Susie does immediately), Ralsei gets a bit overwhelmed and continues to follow Kris/Us around like normal instead. More noteworthy perhaps is that Ralsei's game representative, HERO_SCARF, is once again based on their chapter 1 appearance, just like their HP/battle icon and the fireworks. This is in contrast to Tenna, who actually acknowledges Ralsei's existence for once, but actively uses their new design as a marketing tool with the running gag of the real unhatted Ralsei plush and doesn't really seem to overly care about them too much beyond that, in contrast to how desperate he is for appreciation and attention from Susie and Kris.

The next interesting thing to touch on is the short optional conversation you can have with Ralsei instead of watching Susie, where you can say a variety of options relating to Ralsei's face. Saying their face is unique leads them to reiterate a morose statement about being just a darkner. Saying you've seen it before causes them to admit that if there is one thing they like about themselves now, it is their face, with Kris reassuring them they don't actually look too similar to Asriel like the comment implied. Saying their face is cute leads them to get very flustered and happy, which they immediately apologise for being proud over and that it shouldn't put them in such a good mood, which again puts focus on Ralsei's reluctance to actually fulfill their desire to be "cute".

The second board is largely uneventful for our purposes, until Tenna leaves the room and Susie starts messing around with the game's controllers. After briefly swapping herself and Kris, she then swaps her new controller with Ralsei's, leading to Ralsei having Kris' controller and leaving them in control of HERO_SWORD instead of us, which thereby gives Ralsei the ability to enter room transitions and take photos in place of the player. Ralsei initially freaks out at Susie breaking the rules, then asks Kris/us if we want the controller back. Telling them they can have a turn with it results in initial indecision from Ralsei, as they try to ask us where to go, before making their own decision, and after some difficulty, taking a photo of a suspiciously chapter-5-foreshadowing-shaped flower. After this, Ralsei starts actually enjoying themself and gets excited about being able to run around as HERO_SWORD, to which Susie points out they could have done this normally at any time. Ralsei then responds with:

this again suggests that despite Ralsei's tendencies toward subservience, which in this case they directly relate to not only the TV TIME boards but the game Deltarune itself, Ralsei actually vastly enjoys themself when they do indulge in acts of freedom and self expression of their own sake, however minor. This nice moment is of course cut short when Susie puts all the controllers back so that she can throw bombs around, but it still provides another point to how Ralsei experiences self-expression. After board 2, once we start investigating backstage, Ralsei pulls us aside for another chance at a proper discussion. Nothing overly notable happens in this one aside from continuing to be able to support or dismiss Ralsei's own personal desires and feelings regarding the game boards and the festival.

Before continuing to the end of chapter 3, now is also a decent time to discuss the possible transfem symbology around the game's ribbon armour pieces, since in this chapter, you get the game's third ribbon, the Blue Ribbon. Putting this together with the game's other 2 ribbons before this (excluding the Twin Ribbon which is just both of them combined), the first three ribbons aquired in game are white, then pink, then blue, which form the colours of the Trans pride flag. Notably, at this point in the game, the only character who frequently expresses enjoyment and excitement at wearing these ribbons is Ralsei, though you can also equip them to Kris and Noelle. After chapter 3, the next ribbon you find is the Princess Ribbon in chapter 4, which given chapter 5, the term princess has interesting connotations regarding Ralsei's gender presentation specifically. At the start of chapter 5, Malius the smith can combine the Princess Ribbon and the ScarfMark, one of Ralsei's scarves, to form the MonarchRibbon, which is described to be formed in the image of a Monarch Butterfly. Butterflies are often symbolic of a period of change from something drab to something beautiful and unique. This symbology only breaks down with the new Red Ribbon, which is notably the first time Susie also expresses interest in ribbons, and they become less restrictive in their use as items.

After beating Tenna, Ralsei tries to comfort him by empathizing and explaining their perspective on Darkners and purpose, but it becomes quite obvious in this scene that Ralsei still has a very unhealthy view of their own position and self worth as a Darkner that they are attempting to project onto Tenna. This monologue of course, thankfully gets interrupted by Susie, who explains her own view on the subject, and convinces Tenna to cooperate. Afterwards, she turns around to try and reassure Ralsei that they are real to her and they'll never get discarded or thrown away, which while Ralsei verbally accepts, it's unclear how much they believe her yet. CHAPTER 4

Chapter 4 is where we really begin to dig quite a bit more into Ralsei as a person, and their issues, hopes and desires. It's also where a decent amount of the more overt transfem subtext surrounding Ralsei pre-chapter 5 comes into play. (also apologies since around this point I started hitting tumblr's image limit so there will be more sparing use of images supporting my point) When we first reunite with Ralsei in Castle Town, they invite Kris and Susie to a tea party in the castle. During this they serve a cake that they initially refuse to eat any of, since it was "for you two" until Susie manages to badger them into having a piece, to which they are then surprised to find they enjoy it. Despite this they then refuse again to have more. Here you are given the option to encourage them to eat it, or attempt to claim their piece as yours, which Susie rebukes you for. Again the theme appears of Ralsei having access to things that could make them happier, but despite others being okay with it, they instead continue to keep themselves from it out of believing they don't deserve happiness.

After this, the party can head up to the new top floor of the castle, where alongside a few other rooms, Ralsei's room has been roped off at the far end of the hallway. They attempt to insist it needs cleaning, but Susie ignores them and walks in anyway, only to find it is empty. Ralsei then claims they don't need a room, or material possessions of any kind, since according to them making Kris and Susie happy is their only purpose. Susie calls this line of thinking stupid before telling them that being the only one with an empty room is sad, before resolving to fill it up with furniture and leaving the room to find some. Ralsei then turns to Kris and explains to us that a lot of the hobbies and interests they have previously displayed skills in were often only things they learned in order to help other people, suggesting that a lot of their apparent interests in these were performative. Ralsei then continues to say that recently, they feel like they have begun to start developing a lot more of the own opinions and desires and preferences on things. They clearly sound quite scared and unsure of themself throughout this monologue, and at the end ask Kris/the Player if they "should" be feeling like this. Notably, while we have been given options to support or reject Ralsei's personal development before this, for the first time Kris specifically refuses to properly reject Ralsei in this particular choice if you choose to say "of course not", resulting in Ralsei interpreting either option as a yes and being happy, albiet a much more enthusiastic yes "please be yourself" if you say it properly instead. after this, Susie returns with a furniture piece and the scene ends. Before we move on from this particular important scene, I would like to discuss the relation of this scene to common transfem identity issues, and then point out a couple of other interesting things of note. In particular, this theme of feeling like there's something missing in your life, discovering new things about yourself because of it, but being scared to openly accept it about yourself and admit the feelings are valid, while certainly not exclusive, is a common and often deeply relatable experience for trans people, especially those still in the closet or figuring themselves out. And as a trans woman myself this is certainly a feeling I relate to on a personal level. In addition, the track from the OST playing in this scene is "Lost Girl", which while originally made as a theme for Noelle (and maybe Dess) in chapter 2, has since been expanded in its use as a track that often plays in sad monologues or emotional moments. Notably, however, this track only seems to be used for this in the context of girls and female characters specifically, true to it's name. Briefly listing off every other time it's used: - Noelle's (and later Susie's) scene in her room in chapter 2 - Noelle's monologue about the dark world at the end of chapter 2 - Susie's backstory monologue to Tenna in chapter 3 - Noelle and Susie will start having a discussion to it if you turn on the radio in the basement in chapter 4 - part of Noelle's monologue on the Weird Route in chapter 4 - Susie's monologue about the Old Man in chapter 4 - If you manage to convince Noelle to ride the ferris wheel with Kris in chapter 5 - The scene after Pink's boss fight in chapter 5 where she breaks down and cries

Previously before the release of chapter 5 we weren't really fully sure how intended of a pattern this was, but given it gets used for Pink in chapter 5 (who yes I will be talking about later in the ch 5 section) we can pretty well assume that Lost Girl is a theme for, well, lost girls. Which makes it especially notable and suspicious that this specific case is the only time in the entire game that it is used for a character not explicitly yet stated to be a girl, specifically in a scene where Ralsei is tackling having new desires and becoming their own person. On top of this, there are notable cases where other ostensibly male characters have monologues, and they all use different music (eg. That Day for Asgore, Flashback excerpt for Tenna, Bluebird of Misfortune for Berdly). also just quickly i definitely think there is something you could get out of the Ralsei plush optionally being their first possession but honestly that's just kinda cute, anyway moving on.

Once we get to the dark sanctuaries, Ralsei immediately shifts gears from being introspective to full serious prophecy mode, and starts being a lot more brisque and cagey in their interactions, as it's clear that a lot of the sequences regarding both the prophecy itself and their knowledge of it really stresses them out and puts them on edge. This, and them frequently leaving and trying to run ahead makes a lot more sense when we later find out they are trying to ensure Kris and Susie don't see the ending of the prophecy, as they know it will appear here somewhere.

This, of course, is revealed in Susie's big argument with Ralsei at the end of the second sanctuary, where they start crying while trying to explain why they know so many things but don't tell her any of it. It's made clear in this scene that while Ralsei has a very large amount of knowledge about The Prophecy, the world and Deltarune's game mechanics, they consider this knowledge a painful burden they should bear alone, especially the ending of the prophecy. In their mind, sharing this knowledge would make things worse, so keeping it bottled in to themself is easier and better for everyone, regardless of their personal feelings. Again, Ralsei views their well-being as being beneath others despite the incredible weight of the knowledge they have to bear, so any opinions or desires they may have are repressed. Hearing this, Susie tries to compromise on not knowing the end of the prophecy, to which Ralsei agrees to tell her as much other important information as they can. It's also notable that in the short scene after this, Ralsei mentions that Susie is supposed to equip Ribbon-type armours, which while she does later do this in chapter 5, is notable in that it implies that ribbons are specifically meant for "The Girl" role in the prophecy, which is a different hero to how Ralsei is described, and is odd considering how much supposed "Mr. Prophecy follower" Ralsei still likes to wear them despite knowing this.

After the climactic battle against a titan at the end of the third sanctuary, Susie runs ahead before Ralsei can catch up and ends up seeing the final prophecy before they can stop her. This of course just confirms Ralsei's fear of this exact thing happening, but it's also sort of implied by their dialogue here that this moment was always meant to happen in the prophecy. Susie is clearly deeply affected by it but plays it off and tries to cheer Ralsei up before leaving to the fountain. After this we then get a chance to talk to Ralsei. They apologize again for not telling us everything, before beginning to explain some of their rationale.

It's notable here that there is a quite a bit going on with how Ralsei views the prophecy and their role in it. While they clearly do have a drive to hope for a better future, they also see the prophecy as an inevitability that is pointless to actively avoid, rather they hoped that perhaps kind action alone might cause the prophecy to sort itself out, which explains a lot of their insistence on pacifism in chapter 1. This moment of Susie seeing the prophecy and it still being as bad as they knew despite that just serves to confirm it for them. Even though they clearly were trying to steer the prophecy away from a terrible ending in their own way, Ralsei themself feels like they are defined by the prophecy and fate and only exist to see it through. Notably, a Prophecy that shows them in a form without self expression or character development, that implicitly genders them as masculine, and says they will be alone.

Ralsei then also tries to play off their despair in this moment, albiet less successfully and more obviously than Susie, by telling Kris that it's okay since they're (Ralsei that is, to avoid confusion) smiling. You are then given 2 options on how to respond. Telling them to keep smiling mostly exists as a way to be cartoonishly awful to Ralsei, where they continue to pretend to act happy, since that's what we want them to do, which continues forcing their emotions not a box. Telling them "It's okay not to smile", causes Kris to hug them, as Ralsei admits that they're scared, and that putting up a happy front for other people has been getting a lot harder. They then admit that despite all this, they want believe again that the prophecy can change and that there isn't just one ending (a reference to the game's steam description), saying that Susie's hope, however naive, is infectious. They then conclude that for now, they (and by extension, Kris/Us) could believe in that too. Before leaving, they tell Kris they enjoyed their piano playing, which is one of the first compliments Ralsei gives Kris specific to them instead of us. This scene, along with the scene about identity in Ralsei's room suggest that however dark the road ahead may seem, Ralsei may finally be making progress in their journey of self discovery. CHAPTER 5

Now you may (like me), already be astounded at how much I'm willing to write about this already and how much I've managed to make out of the evidence thus far, but chapter 5 of Deltarune is perhaps the chapter with the largest and most dense amount of symbolism and subtext regarding Ralsei and transfemininity, up to and including an essentially mandatory cutscene that very directly implies Ralsei's closeted transness, so there is still quite a ways to go before this is finished for the time being. Before we cover the main thing to discuss in Castle Town, we'll briefly go over some of the more interesting dialogue in Ralsei's room. If you interact the the tea set, Ralsei discusses expanding their beverage preferences to share with their friends, which you can again arbitrarily shoot down or support, as their talent for making tea specifically is a pre-established characteristic of theirs. Ralsei can also admit that they have actually started to like singing lately as something personal rather than forced.

The next thing we have to talk about is one of chapter 5's 2 big scenes that directly addresses Ralsei's identity and gender presentation. In Castle town's new church building, one room features a climbing minigame that is stated to have various "princesses" and "darlings" at the top depending on the player's time to clear the course. If you clear the course under a certain time and DO NOT have The Original Starwalker in your Castle Town, Rouxls will step aside to reveal Ralsei in a princess dress, who explains that all the other darlings got bored and left, but "he could be your princess" if you want them to be. The Player is once again given two options. Choosing the almost comedically rude and pointedly gendered "Nah, Bro..." causes them to immediately switch back outfits and agree they have more experience as a prince, while looking awkward. Instead picking "Of Course!" causes Ralsei to say "Really? Oh, I'm so excited!" before doing the world's cutest little spin into a pose. Ralsei then says that while they have been a prince for a while, they've never been a princess, before introspectively saying that the only difference may be in how you present yourself, and that trying new things is fun, before going back on the statement anyway, concluding that it's okay to do "As long as it's...what other people want, of course!" before the scene ends.

This scene on it's own is quite interesting and is definitely a progression for how Ralsei views themself in a number of ways. The line about it being in how you present can definitely tie into ideas around Ralsei being genderfluid or bigender if that's how you want to take it, and is definitely meant to be presented at least as good and valid options for them to experiment with, however given Ralsei's continued reaction to the term Princess specifically in a later scene, as well as some of the other more trans and transfem-specific stuff I mentioned earlier (such as the use of the trans dress and lost girl) as well as more stuff I'll mention later, Ralsei is definitely at the very least heavily leaning towards femininity and likely transfemininity in terms of how they want to present in the future. Seperately to this part of the discussion it is worth noting in this scene that even though they are clearly much more enthused and happy with the idea of being a princess, they backpedal very quickly to the status quo of being a prince if you shut them down, and even if you say yes they still cut themselves off from actually choosing it as a real thing that they want for themselves, instead claiming it's only ok to do essentially if Kris asks them to do it perfomatively, a stance that will get directly challenged later in the chapter. While this is something they've found they do enjoy, their commitment to it is still shaky at best for the time being. While we're here, I'm also going to discuss a few other things I've seen people point out about Ralsei's "Princess" appearance here. First of all, while Ralsei often keeps their hands behind their back in a way that tends to signal refinement and obedience, while in this dress, their arms are loosely at their side and their body language is much more open than normal. In addition to this, while some of the pastel detailing of Ralsei's body tends to look a bit out of place with their regular sprites, the colour matches up much more closely with the detailing on this dress, and looks much more consistent. The last thing I want to mention about this scene is just how weird of a scene it is gameplay wise. Despite this evidently being an interesting step in where Ralsei is taking their identity, it is highly unlikely to see this scene at all in the first place. The scene is completely optional, requires exploring a side building in Castle Town, actually getting within the correct time frame for the correct scene to trigger, and on top of all that, the scene is entirely replaced and unseeable if you have met The Original Starwalker, which most Deltarune fans and completionists have in their long-term save files so as to see more content. Instead, a different scene plays that starts off the same, but also reveals Starwalker as well as Ralsei in the dress, and ends immediately after a quote from Starwalker. I frankly have no idea why the devs did this, as the regular scene is far superior and more interesting to this version, which only seems to exist as bait for the actual scene minus starwalker. Thankfully this scene is the only instance of a big scene like this about Ralsei being given this treatment in the game and most of the other stuff i'll talk about are things you cannot accidentally lock yourself out of or too easily miss.

Before we leave Castle Town, there is one more tiny detail I would like to point out, this one surrounding the Susie Makeover scene in the castle, which itself mainly calls to attention Susie's relationship with her gender presentation. If you include the tiara option as Susie's headwear in your final choice, Susie will complain that the tiara is unnecessary for her, before Ralsei nervously chimes in saying they'll take it if Susie doesn't want it. Very minor but still cute.

Finally moving on to the Flower Kingdom Dark World, rather than Ralsei walking in from off screen as usual, we first run into Ralsei as they fall out of the closet that Flowery stuffed them into, which is perhaps the most unsubtle metaphor made literal in the entire game. Then again, thinking about this, Ralsei literally spent their whole life living inside a closet so this line of thinking actually tracks the more you think about it. Inspecting the closet again reveals it is full of copies of Ralsei's hat, which they vehemently refuse to put on. Unfortunately for them, in the very next scene, where we begin to see Ralsei and Flowery's dynamic, Flowery immediately forces the hat onto Ralsei, so that Asgore won't mistake them for Asriel. Flowery also quips to Kris, "Doesn't he look much better this way?" before he leaves, much to Ralsei's disappointment and chagrin. This scene alone has quite a bit to unpack. Immediately, the hat has returned as a symbol of Ralsei's insecurity regarding their looks and was literally forced onto them in a way that metaphorically puts them "back in the closet", this time in a much more obvious fashion. Them having to wear it so as to hide themselves from being seen could also be a parallel to the concept of boymoding for trans women. It's also notable that Flowery suggests directly to Kris/Us the Player that Ralsei looks better this way, as a long running discussion surrounding Ralsei's appearance in the Deltarune community out of game agrees with this exact sentiment. Bringing this conversation into the game as a meta-joke is a really interesting way of exploring how Ralsei as a character is percieved, since this change in their appearance represents character growth, and wishing for their original appearance to return in-game almost suggests by extension a desire for Ralsei themself to regress as a character. Before going a bit more into Ralsei and Flowery's relationship, I'll quickly mention that once you open the chest with the Red Ribbon in it, Ralsei reminisces on getting the White Ribbon in chapter 1, then says that makes them want to wear a ribbon again, before Susie cuts in saying she wouldn't mind wearing it. If you do equip it to Ralsei, they ask Susie if they look cuter with it on, Susie looks confused, and Ralsei says that obivously they look cute normally too. A fun little scene calling back to chapter 1 that just sort of adds on to the pile of stuff regarding Ralsei's burgeoning freedom of expression. This segment of the chapter is a pretty good time to lay out what's happening between Ralsei and Flowery. While Flowery does have this flamboyant showboatiness to him whenever he talks to anyone, he pays a lot of special attention to Ralsei specifically, especially compared to how little the previous chapter bosses engage with them. A lot of the humor from the gardens area comes specifically from Flowery both just generally being showy, as well as using this quality to needle Ralsei about various things in a way that really sets them off in a fashion unseen before considering how reserved and dignified they normally act. A lot of the things Flowery does in these scenes initially comes off as petty for the sake of it or a joke entirely at Ralsei's expense, but given a little more context and attention, most of these fit into 2 specific categories: poking at Ralsei's secrets and meta knowledge of Deltarune's mechanics to get them to explain things to people, or angering Ralsei in a way that causes them to cut loose emotionally and honestly express their feelings on something. Often times it can even serve both purposes at once. For example, in the scene where Flowery messes around with the game's CONFIG menu to annoy Ralsei into talking about it with Susie, if you already have Voice Clips turned off, he'll tell you to turn them on because Susie likes them, and Ralsei tries to object to this before Flowery says:

Flowery isn't just bothering them for the sake of it, he has a very specific goal he's trying to accomplish. As someone who is on a very similar level of meta knowledge to Ralsei, he can see that a lot of the ways Ralsei hides information and represses their self expression for others is actively harming them, and is trying to subtly trick them into letting out all their bottled up feelings and admit things both to others and themself. Through this lens, even him shoving them in a closet and forcing their hat back on temporarily make a lot more sense, as they push Ralsei much further into establishing firm boundaries about not wanting to wear the hat and hide who they are anymore. A lot of these are things Ralsei has been inching closer to doing for a little while lately, but that they still need a bit of a push to actually do for themselves. And so Flowery is pushing them, quite hard. Of course, while this does broadly have his intended affect, it does not win him points with Ralsei, who takes most of the needling a lot more personally than Flowery was perhaps intending, especially in the front half of the chapter. But since even Ralsei being willing to get angry with him is a lot more progress, he continues.

Skipping forward quite a bit to Flower Castle, Flowery again continues to bother Ralsei specifically using these tactics, including forcing them into their butler outfit from chapter 2, and convincing them to attempt to confront Kris about making Dark Fountains at the hot spring. One more brief example of Ralsei's presentation around this point is when the group dresses up as Ace Attourney characters for one encounter, both of the Characters whose' outfits Ralsei wears are women. There's also quite a bit more discussion around Ralsei's hat, notably Orange calling Ralsei an "ugly rat" and insisting they should wear a hat, which continues to incense Ralsei to the point of being needlessly petty and patronizing, inciting conflict between her and the Fun Gang.

But it's after defeating Green and Orange that we get the other big scene in chapter 5 with heavy Transfem implications that arguably confirms all this. After walking for a little bit, Susie gets pulled aside by Green to show her some recipes for cookies, leaving Kris and Ralsei alone, similar to the scene on the other side of the castle. Ralsei then suggests you both take some time away from Susie to give her some privacy. You can either agree, or say you'll think about Susie anyway, which regardless both cause Ralsei to go further off to take some time for themself. You are then given the option for the first time in the game to close your eyes and think about Ralsei instead of Susie. Refusing to do so initially causes the option to pop up again, with the dialogue choice stressing that doing this seems important, with refusing a second time skipping the scene. It's very clear with this that this scene is intentionally made to be essentially mandatory story content by the developers, and seeing it is clearly important. Closing your eyes shifts your perspective to Ralsei, who is knelt down praying in front of the ornamental pond. given their dialogue while praying here, they are clearly still very worried about the outcome of the prophecy that may be coming in the near future. Midway through this, they are interrupted by Flowery coming out of the pond, asking them if they have a lot on their mind. Ralsei, though clearly annoyed, asks quite measuredly why Flowery isn't mad that Kris and Susie have gotten out of Jail, which Flowery brushes off as being about friendship and understanding, before coming out of the water to ask about them praying. Ralsei clarifies that they pray every chance they get because they feel like it's all they can do and that they just have to believe. Flowery then challenges this by asking Ralsei why they don't just put their faith in themself. Ralsei balks at this, claiming that Flowery lacks self awareness and that comparing their faith to his supposed arrogance is incorrect, and that Flowery has no chance of defeating them. They then angrily claim that if they let themselves go like Flowery, they could "Burn him down in an instant". Flowery then observes that they have not, before positing that perhaps Ralsei secretly wants to see if Flowery could defeat them, and thus defy fate, which Ralsei does not manage to deny very convincingly. Flowery then tries to cheer Ralsei up by offering them some free drink vouchers for the cafe. Ralsei accepts, saying that Susie would enjoy the root drink before getting caught up as they think about what Kris would want. Flowery then asks if Ralsei wants the "Blue and Pink" option, which startles Ralsei as they attempt to deny it before asking Flowery how he knew that. Flowery simply says in reply it was the one "you were looking at the longest". He then says to get their favourite without "worrying about Kris", before gently touching them on the nose and saying this:

This causes Ralsei to noticably be much more flushed than their normal blush sprites, and leaves them speechless. Flowery then leaves, with Ralsei still sitting on the boardwalk blushing. The scene then fades out and we see Ralsei returing to Kris and Susie with the vouchers, before divvy-ing out them out to each, then getting nervous. You are then given the option to either take the "Green and Yellow" drink voucher, or the "Blue and Pink" one that Ralsei wants. Choosing Green and Yellow causes Ralsei to happily take the Blue and Pink voucher, while thinking that Kris has their preferences in mind. Choosing Blue and Pink anyway causes Susie to immediately berate you, saying that you obviously just picked the option Ralsei wanted, and that "You're always choosing stuff, let him have this one". Either way, Ralsei takes the Blue and Pink voucher, and the scene ends. This scene even on its own outside of all other evidence is quite insane with just how heavy handed the implication here is, with Flowery saying they want blue and pink (again, the trans colours) and calling them "Princess" again in a playful manner, specifically to cap off a scene talking about how Ralsei should cut loose and believe in themself without worrying about other people's opinions (especially with how Ralsei reacts to being called Princess). This seems to be at least partially made as a follow-up to the Tower Princess scene in Castle Town where, again, Ralsei expresses great happiness and excitement at the idea of being a Princess instead of a Prince before backtracking and saying it's only something they're allowed if Kris says so. Before moving on, there's quite a few specific things I want to break down, mostly kind of annoying things people have claimed about this scene with no actual basis. Firstly, this is in fact the one and only time Flowery calls Ralsei specifically "Princess". While Flowery does use the term "Princess" a decent amount in chapter 5, nearly every time he is using it specifically as an anime-esque gendered term to refer to Susie, who is a woman, who also explictly comments on him doing this. There are two other occasions than this where he uses the word "Princess" in a different way to this: once in the weird missable hospital scene where he describes carrying the Fun Gang there "like princesses", and once where he interrupts the Fung Gang in a cutscene saying he "heard some princesses in distress" where notably the "distress" he hears is a conversation between the Fun Gang where Kris is silent and the only people talking are Susie and Ralsei. Given this context, it is highly unlikely that in this scene that he is doing anything other than attempting to imply Ralsei's gender in a loaded fashion when in a scene talking about what they secretly want. It's also worth noting that this only happens in this scene, which as far as Flowery knows, is a private moment between him and Ralsei, where he's trying to encourage them without other people being around to hear (which is actually surprisingly respectful of him). it's also interesting in that after in this in scenes with other characters Flowery still refers to Ralsei with he/him, which goes to emphasize his understanding that these feelings of Ralsei's are still private. (I know that whole bit may have seemed obvious to you but I have genuinely seen many people arguing about Flowery's use of "princess" and it drives me up the wall).

I also think it's quite interesting that this scene is essentially mandatory compared to the earlier scene I talked about. Like it's technically skippable, as most long character cutscenes in the game like this are, but this one specifically despite giving you options essentially puts up 2-3 seperate roadblocks to prevent you from missing it and seeing what happens. While this is partially due to some of the other important information earlier in the scene, clearly all the trans identity stuff is considered equally as important, especially considering the scene is followed up with Susie forcibly supporting Ralsei's choice of Blue and Pink, as she often does with Ralsei expressing themself. In my mind this kind of possibly recontextualises why the earlier scene was optional at least a little since they knew this scene existed, and that scene was more optional set-up that may not be needed if you have picked up on other stuff about Ralsei throughout the game so far.

Before moving on to talking about some of the notable things that happen in the dialogue at the top of the castle, I want to go briefly out of sequence to talk about chapter 5's secret boss, Pink. While a lot of people have complained that Pink seems more lacklustre than other secret bosses theming wise, I would argue that she actually has quite a lot going for her in this department. One thing I personally have noticed that although the bulk of stuff regarding Pink seems to mainly relate to a more positive outlook on Kris' relationship with the Player, Pink also does a good job at reflecting the current character arcs of the rest of the Fun Gang too. Notably for one thing Pink seems to struggle with handling romance and intimacy as a symptom of deeper issues, which sounds a lot like Susie's current arc as of chapter 5. The second big thing Pink has going on is how a lot of her anger is a result of her dealing with issues around her gender and how she percieves her body and with the resolution involving coming to feel like herself as the girl she always wanted to be, which relates quite heavily to where Ralsei is at at the moment. It also is unlikely a coincidence that the secret boss of the game's big Ralsei-centric chapter is not only the first evidently and openly female secret boss (I'm pretty sure Dess is the knight too but chapter 3 doesn't tell us that), but is also a pre-existing canonical Trans Woman character. Also notable is that Ralsei is the main character to have dialogue with her throughout the fight, and helps convince her to find a better solution for her problem.

After climbing the giant vine to get to the top of Flower Castle, Ralsei's POWER menu title changes to "Dark Vine", with the subtitle "Watering their own thorns". While the use of They/them pronouns for Ralsei here is indeed interesting, and partially why this is currently what I'm using in this post for Ralsei, what I find more interesting is the description of watering their own thorns. This continues to imply that the only thing keeping Ralsei trapped and restricted and hurt in their current idea of themself is their own self imposed barrier they have created.

As the party continues to progress through the top of the castle, Flowery routinely appears to argue his case with the Fun Gang, and explain his ideas and motivations such as posing the idea of keeping Flower Kingdom's fountain and sealing Castle Town instead. The second time he comes to talk, Ralsei rushes him and immediately attempts to attack him, accusing him of deliberately dragging things out. In response Flowery questions why Ralsei is so against him, and quips that Ralsei normally "likes" serving humans. Ralsei yells back that Flowery isn't really a human, and then says this:

to which Flowery retorts with "Oh? Ralsei, wanna tell them what's wrong with that?" which clearly immediately shocks Ralsei and causes them to retort less confidently about how his purpose is to be a flower and their's is to stop the darkness, and that there's no running from it. Flowery then reflects that maybe he teased Ralsei too much, affirming he was indeed doing it "thinking it could help them realize they could be happy". He then concludes that it just seems to have made them jealous that he and the other flowers don't have to follow Ralsei's "silly little rules" which really upsets Ralsei, casuing them to yell at Flowery on the verge of tears that if they don't follow the rules, everything will fall apart, before asking if he thinks they wanted it to be like this. Flowery simply responds to this with "Then what DO you want?", which stuns Ralsei into silence. Flowery then reaffirms he's only trying to help, which angers Ralsei into attempting another attack on Flowery, who then leaves. Susie comes up and attempts to brush off what Flowery said, but it has clearly had a big affect on them. This scene really nails in Flowery's motivation for his treatment of Ralsei, as well as Ralsei's still desperate clinging to the purpose brought by the prophecy as their last big reason not to do what would make them happy. Particularly Flowery's line goading Ralsei to tell their friends what exactly is wrong with pretending to be something you're not sticks out as a pointed comment around Ralsei's identity and their attempt to keep it private and hidden, along with the line asking Ralsei what they really actually want (both of which clearly fluster Ralsei as they still don't have a good answer for them).