idk im just here for the gender and birds

i can see this very easily, in fact i think it might be more likely than ralsei just being a girl only. with ralsei's pronouns switching to they/them in the power menu, and the line "ive been a prince for a while, but i havent been a princess yet! i suppose the only difference is how you present yourself... but, it's fun to try new things, isnt it?", im thinking ralsei being bigender or genderfluid is a big possibility (if whatever ralsei decides to be even has a strict label like that at all). imo any pronouns are on the table right now (but i'll probably stick to she or they, personally).

message sent to a friend after i got to the "princess" bit

if i'd had a bingo card, "hidden reference to bagi: the monster of mighty nature" would not have been on it

hm, ive only played through the chapter once so i might disagree with myself later, but here's how i feel for now. from a character analysis angle i think the way susie acts/is written makes perfect sense- from the moment she woke up this morning, all of castle town has been hyping her up and priming her for her big date with noelle, down to attempted makeover sequences. this is also probably her first romantic relationship EVER, after a lifetime of being seen as undesirable and told she doesnt belong, desiring and being desired back in this way has got to be earth-shaking. young love like this hits fast and hard, it's like romeo and juliet. of course noelle is all she can think about, and from there of course she's more open to things she might not have been before, she's got every reason to be in a great mood. she's got every reason to not be dwelling on the prophecy.

im sure you want me to talk about the ribbons thing, as it's something ive been harping on since chapter 4. im of two minds about that, on one hand i think all three members of the fun gang display some level of interest with gender fluidity, whether in presentation or just. being transgender. so susie deciding to give ribbons a try fits in line with that, she's experimenting because she's happy and she wants to be included. that's not a bad thing at all, if in the end susie decides she's comfortable dressing more feminine sometimes too it could be an extension of her becoming more comfortable with herself in general. she's ok with seeming a little soft or silly, if it has the potential to bring her joy. (edit: apparently if you DO equip ribbons on her she's still not a huge fan, and tries to put them places other than her hair. fascinating!)

on the other side, like i said i need to play through the chapter again to get a better read on how this progresses, but from the beginning i noticed a LOT of focus on gendered language, especially when it came to susie. rudy hints that there might be "two queens this year" while susie continues to refer to herself as king. the darkners fix up a pretty dress for her, swatch tries to put her in makeup. flowery frequently calls her "princess" and kisses her hand. he gives her a ribbon and she wears it. susie questions why it's always gotta be king and queen, but she still goes along with everything. that feels kind of incongruous with ralsei's arc in this chapter, given the amount of Transgender Clues and the fact that flowery pushes her (them? still not sure what pronouns we're gonna decide on) to be true to herself using the same language that's ill-fitting for susie. that makes sense for flowery though, despite his determination to change fate he's a walking cliche, and he's trapped by that. he's inconsistent in a way he's never fully self-aware of.

i think a lot of people will find chapter 5 frustrating, because it's frustrating when characters fail to move forward or stick to the things they promised. to me this chapter has a strong theme of inevitability. in the wake of the insistence that things can be changed, this chapter shows almost no progress towards that. ralsei will follow whatever kris says, without question. the fountain has to be sealed no matter what. rudy falls down. asgore is taken. a simple flower can't defeat the roaring knight. love finds its way to the girl. susie can now equip ribbons.

ive been through my own arc with flowery... i took a lot longer than any of my friends to warm up to him, even by the end of the chapter i still kinda hated his guts, but despite myself i think i am fond of him now (that's normal for me though, i often take days to fully process something ive seen or read and start being able to analyze it outside of my own emotions in the moment).

he's so perfectly designed to be infuriating that it becomes funny the more you think about it. the way he looks, the way he talks so cutesy, the fact that nobody wanted a guy like this in the slightest. he's anti-bait. he's like a cringey camp counselor who makes dad jokes, or your ex-wife's new man who you know is trying to replace you in your kids' lives and succeeding. he's the most obvious "will turn out to be the most evil person here" setup ever but he's not that, he's genuinely really sincere and caring and you hate it. that's hysterical. it also puts the audience in a position to identify with ralsei the first time we get to see her really angry and bitter, to the point of being mean.

i can see this very easily, in fact i think it might be more likely than ralsei just being a girl only. with ralsei's pronouns switching to they/them in the power menu, and the line "ive been a prince for a while, but i havent been a princess yet! i suppose the only difference is how you present yourself... but, it's fun to try new things, isnt it?", im thinking ralsei being bigender or genderfluid is a big possibility (if whatever ralsei decides to be even has a strict label like that at all). imo any pronouns are on the table right now (but i'll probably stick to she or they, personally).

noelle also has a line while on the ferris wheel with kris where she mentions that as kids when she and kris were voting for themselves, they couldn't agree on who should be king and queen, which is the first mention of kris being unable to fit within traditional gender roles. while hometown obviously respects kris's identity as a nonbinary person, they still have traditions which enforce strict male and female gendered roles and heteronormativity.

(im working on a video about gender in chapter 5 as a whole since there is SO MUCH to talk about, so if you have any other thoughts on the subject i'd love to hear thwm since in my mind ur kinda the og Gender In Deltarune person)

(well thats a lot of pressure lol)

hometown strikes me as a very like, northeast liberal small town (which is exactly the kind of town i grew up in). you'll get things like unisex bathrooms, teachers have to use the correct pronouns for trans students, and you might even have two prom queens. it's just about as good as it could be... but that's still all built upon the foundation of heteronormativity and sexism, because everything in the world as we know it started that way and you cant get rid of it without first destroying the very structure of our society. and as inclusive as you try to be, things slip through the cracks (such as not having a gender-neutral term for king/queen) and any changes/additions are known to be out of the ordinary in some way. everyone's polite about it, everyone's accepting of it, but they all know that it's different.