at this point, my current interpretation/headcanon for ralsei's gender is that they're nonbinary, specifically multigender or genderfluid.
one thing that makes me think this is the princess ralsei scene. something that stood out to me when i first saw it was the way ralsei talks about the whole prince/princess thing
"I've been a prince for a while, but I haven't been a princess yet. I suppose the only difference is how you present yourself... But, it's fun to try new things, isn't it...?"
they talk about being a prince/princess (eg being a boy/girl) as something one can swap between and take on and off like an outfit, and while it's clear they enjoy being a princess (based on the cute little spin they do), instead of specifically expressing joy in being a princess, they express joy in getting to "try new things", which reads to me less so as not wanting to be a prince anymore, but wanting to be allowed to be more than just a prince, and to get to play around with gender.
another thing that makes me think this is the butler ralsei scenes in chapters 2 and 5. in chapter 2, ralsei enjoys being a butler, while in chapter 5 they hate it and takes the outfit off as quickly as possible.
when susie asks about their change in opinion, and brings up their previous enjoyment, ralsei responds: "I'm finding, it's rather context based."
while this does point to ralsei's preferences when it comes to gender presentation being fluid, more interestingly it also reflects the experiences of a lot of genderqueer trans folk, who as eggs hated presenting in ways that aligned with their socially imposed gender, but after figuring themselves out started to enjoy presenting that way because it wasn't being forced upon them. this mirrors ralsei enjoying being a butler/masculine on their own terms, but hates when it was forced upon them by flowery. while it's not a one to one experience, i feel that there are enough similarities that it's worth pointing out.
(less so evidence and more so a cool headcanon to go along with this but i like to think that ralsei's crush on kris is actually gender envy and they just don't know it yet)
i also think it's interesting from the perspective of the prophecy because it would means that even if ralsei is the prince in the prophecy, they can be more than just a prince. they can be more than just the role they're supposed to play.
also, from a more doylist perspective, i've noticed that nonbinary transition narratives are rather rare. most stories with nonbinary characters i've seen have them appear in the story fully realized, and never touch on how they got there, while it's more common for narratives about binary trans characters to touch on the topic of transition, either within the main narrative or in the characters backstory. i want there to be more diversity in the types of stories told about trans characters, and i think it'd be cool if we got to see a less represented story with ralsei.
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