Hopes and Dreams: The Character Dynamic of Ralsei and Flowery, and Queer Writing in Deltarune Chapter 5
PROBABLY NEEDLESS TO SAY, BUT SPOILERS FOR DELTARUNE CHAPTER 5 BELOW! YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!
Deltarune Chapter 5 came out, and I love it! It’s neck-and-neck with Chapter 2 as my favorite section of the game thus far. I think a lot of people are feeling that way, and I find it pretty unsurprising. It’s difficult to deny the quality of the gameplay even if you weren’t as enamored with the story as I was.
However, Chapter 5’s release has had a weird sort of grumbling undercurrent on social media which I didn’t notice for previous chapters. There are two things I see standing out a lot here: the character of Flowery and his interactions with Ralsei, as well as the slowly-growing-more-popular trans Ralsei theory. These are two things that I think some fans are very uncharitably just… Refusing to interface with.
Flowery is often portrayed as smug, annoying, and pointless. A bully, essentially, which I think is the wrong way to view his interactions with Ralsei. I’ve even seen people call him a shallow retread of past bosses. And trans Ralsei theory I think often degenerates to people sending a bunch of screenshots without delving into the deeply queer themes of Chapter 5 that are putting so much wind into the theory’s sails, and just as quickly gets discarded as baseless headcanon.
So I’m going to blabber on a bit about both of these things, and how they play into each other. Keep in mind, this is not an aforementioned screenshot dump of moments that count as “trans Ralsei evidence.” This is more an explanation for people that might be confused as to why this chapter is making that pick up steam, while also clarifying some of the themes I see folks failing to pick up from Flowery and his interactions with Ralsei.
When you first meet Ralsei in the dark world this time around, he’s been stuffed into a closet by Flowery in order to try to get him to hide his face with a hat. From a simple narrative point of view, the purpose of this is to hide him away from Asgore. Thematically, it’s a bit more complex! A closet is a very common piece of imagery for hiding one’s queerness in general. Furthermore, the hat all by itself is an important symbol to Ralsei’s character. It represents his initial closed-off nature, his fear of being himself. He doesn’t want to put that hat back on, and says as much repeatedly. This man forces him to do so! That affects Ralsei in a way I do not think Flowery intended, and in a way I do not think that Ralsei was quite prepared to confront as thoroughly as he ends up doing in this chapter.
I am not going to focus on one-by-one layouts of symbolism like this, but I think this particular one is very important because after Flowery does this, it really changes Ralsei’s tone throughout the chapter. He’s seething every time the guy even comes up into conversation! Every little thing he does drives him crazy! It’s very funny… But I think also very important, and a whole lot more complicated than Flowery just being a “bully.”
In fact, I would say Flowery isn’t much of a bully when you get down to it. That bit with the hat is genuinely the meanest thing he does to Ralsei all chapter. Most of the early game is spent with him doing nothing markedly different from the average Deltarune chapter antagonist, if not even less so; he frequently helps the Fun Gang despite it being in direct conflict with his goals. In a little-seen scene early in the game if you lose to the first crew of enemies, he actually saves your life and advises you leave the Dark World for your own safety.
And yet Ralsei cannot bear it. He hates seeing Flowery’s antics even when they don’t put he or his friends at risk at all. Even when he helps them! And whenever Susie or Kris get along with Flowery or even simply don’t condemn him enough for Ralsei’s tastes, he gets very frustrated. To understand why, you have to understand how different the pair are: Ralsei is all about hopes, and Flowery is all about dreams.
Hopes and Dreams are a recurring theme of Undertale and Deltarune, along with Determination. To explain how these two compare, I think it’s best to look at these three things. Both Ralsei and Flowery have their own brand of intense determination. They love their friends dearly, and are fighting for the chance to change fate and give the ones they care for a happy ending. The other two concepts, though, more complicated.
I need to stress, I am not talking in terms of hopes and dreams and determination as hard, defined devices in the narrative here so much as I am talking about them being used as thematic devices. I implore you to not read this and take it as me talking about how characters have some power or the other. To me, that’s dramatically less important than how they are used as symbols in chapter 5.
Ralsei’s approach to life is a deep reliance on hope. He hopes and prays, against all odds that somewhere along the path they are taking, something will happen that will fundamentally change the inevitable disaster that he knows is coming. Despite knowing whatever grim conclusion the prophecy holds and despite knowing the problems Kris is bringing about, he trusts that there’s some miracle will occur that will see things through to something better than what’s supposed to come.
His innate flaw is his feelings of powerlessness. He feels crushed beneath fate, and conceives himself as only a tiny piece of it rather than someone with agency and the power to bring change. A few chapters ago he was insistent on thinking of himself as nothing but a thing, something to be used for greater purposes and then discarded. He considered his entire existence to be devoted to bringing about something; something he hated, and felt selfish for even wanting to turn out wrong.
By the time of Chapter 5, Ralsei has accepted himself as a person with thoughts and feelings, but is still deeply a work in progress. Accepting that you weren’t what you thought you were is one thing, but deciphering exactly what you actually are is something else entirely! And one of the things that he absolutely isn’t going to shirk immediately is the system under which he operates; despite coming to dislike it, he respects it. He pleads and prays with it, even when it’s never done anything but make him miserable and fearful and lonely. He keeps secrets in order to maintain its continued existence. It’s all he knows and he cannot yet conceive of anything else.
What happens, then, when someone who is still a slave to a system they hate meets someone else who was faced with the same learned hopelessness? Except, their reaction to it was to give that system a kick right in the jaw and try to seize their dreams in both hands and never let go? Well, first he gets mad. Then he gets jealous.
Ralsei, by his own admission, doesn’t know precisely why Flowery makes him so mad at first. He’s not particularly doing anything that the myriad of other goofy chapter baddies like Queen or Tenna didn’t! But paying attention to him will yield an answer pretty quickly for the player: Flowery is defying the logic of the game. He is flagrantly skipping puzzles Ralsei feels they ought to have to do. He is casually explaining information to Susie that Ralsei feels he needs to gate off from her. He even dares to spit in the face of the economy! The horror! The system that Ralsei devotes everything to is being subverted entirely.
Flowery’s precise motivations are something that I think kind of slip by people because outside of his admiration and love for Asgore, he never directly sits down and explains them to you. The closest thing that you get is the lyrics of his boss them, Flower Man. I don’t blame folks for not delving into them too deeply on average because they are written in silly broken English, but there’s some powerful explanation of motivation to be found in there
The titular Flower Man of the song is not Flowery, but Asgore. The lyrics tell of someone in a “chamber of glass” who watches the Flower Man struggling with his life, being miserable, but never letting go of the hope and empathy that drove him to take care of the flowers which were never meant to live longer than a day. It’s not altogether different than Ralsei’s feelings of powerlessness; Flowery wishes he could help and reciprocate all the kindness done unto him, but feels tiny and helpless. Flowery, however, has an entirely different reaction to that feeling.
In the first verse, Flowery wishes he could make him laugh and smile again but feels hopeless. In the second, he comes to the conclusion that the Asgore never gives up and finds both power and drive in that. “Even broken, I am more than glass” is the credo he settles on, and that is core to both Flowery and the chapter at large: he firmly believes that inside, he is more than what he is on the outside.
Whereas Ralsei is hopes, Flowery is purely dreams. When he has a hope, there is no praying or wishing, he simply does. When the Dark Fountain comes, he believes unwaveringly that this is the opportunity for both he and the other flowers’ dreams to be realized. He gives Asgore what he wants without hesitation or questioning his own understanding of their implications or meaning. Without hesitating, he validates and encourages the other flower children. He refuses to be restrained by rules and if confronted with them he simply breaks them flagrantly.
I think Flowery’s relation to dreams in particular is very clear, even moreso than Ralsei’s hopes. The most obvious is probably the quote “nothing is stronger than a flower’s dream” during his final clash with the knight. But even beyond that, one of his flavor texts during his fight is “Flowery holds on to his dream.”
More obscurely, and most interesting to me though, is the aforementioned “even broken I am more than glass” line. When giving Seam the last shadowcrystal, he mentions that the crystals (which are commonly described as a shard of glass) are in reality shattered dreams. I believe the line in Flowery’s song is a direct reference to that: even broken, a dream is still a dream. It makes a line that already went hard as hell go even harder.
His innate flaw is that his approach to everything is simple belief. As Ralsei says multiple times, he is in a situation that appears to be far over his head and does not have a plan except for believing in himself. He operates on the idea that if you believe in something deeply and truly enough, it must be right. This works for some things, but in other ways, forcing your dream to come true out of sheer willpower is as foolhardy as it is inspiring.
Dreams are fleeting things; they do not always come true, no matter how beautiful they are. At the tail end of things, Flowery even admits to you he always knew he would lose even if he won. Flowers cannot survive in the dark, and that makes the dream is as impermanent as life itself. But all the same, he and the others strive to dream for as long as they can. Why? If you were given one miraculous chance to live your life how you wanted to be, would you let go of it, or would you try your best to hold onto it for as long as you can? He chooses the latter.
This is the ultimate point of contention between Ralsei and Flowery; jealousy. It’s a recurring theme all throughout Chapter 5. Remember Catti getting mad at the festival? Remember Kris, who clearly likes Susie, having to faithfully follow she and Noelle around and wingman for her date based on your whims? Ralsei sees the freedom that Flowery operates with, unbound by rules he himself is growing resentful of, and it upsets him far more than any of Flowery’s antics.
Flowery is a mirror to a lot of characters. The Spade King is one; he was given a fountain by the Knight and takes the opportunity to achieve his dream of ruling once again. But whereas the king is cruel and vengeful, Flowery is genuine in his kindness to the other inhabitants of the Dark World and just wants a chance to exist and be happy.
Flowey is another fairly obvious one, even beyond the name and existence as a golden flower. Flowey is incapable of comprehending friendship and love without a soul and as such only wants to bend everyone and everything to his will. Flowery, meanwhile, pulls strength from everything Flowey lacks; his method of reaching his final form is through empathy and cooperation with the six other flowers. He is literally powered by love and friendship.
That love isn’t limited to just the other flowers, though. He’s the only boss in the game who goes out of his way to spare you and your party, even if he wins. Although he views Kris as someone who caused so much pain to his beloved Asgore and his friends as someone trying to end his dream, he can’t bring himself to truly hurt them. As Omega Flowery, he chides himself for hesitating at the end, and during his fight with the Knight he displays speed and strength he never used on you in your boss fight against him.
The one character I think a lot of people don’t pick up Flowery’s similarities to, because of their differences being so important as well, is Ralsei. Their ideologies are very different, but they both have an ultimate goal of changing fate in order to bring about a happy ending which they feel the circumstances of their birth did not grant them. They also both carry a lot of devotion towards a person that very dubiously deserves it, in the form of Kris and Asgore.
These devotions are tragic in their own way; Kris is running around making fountains and aiding the Knight that is trying to bring about The Roaring, and we know from information Flowery doesn’t have that Asgore’s unwillingness to give up on Toriel actually drives to behave in an extremely toxic way. But I would argue that in both cases, a very pure and strong person with a good heart grew from a bad place.
Ralsei’s determination to hope for the best never falters and drives him forward. Flowery is much the same; as Ralsei accuses him of, he doesn’t really have a plan. But his willpower to make dreams come true for himself, his friends and Asgore give him unending confidence. It’s the same determination, just employed very differently. Action version inaction.
Partway through the castle, Ralsei finally begins to understand that. He still doesn’t believe in Flowery’s approach, but he comes to understand that he’s trying his best in his own way for the ones he loves, just the same as Ralsei himself is. Flowery doesn’t hate Ralsei! That anger is very one-sided. If anything, he’s concerned for him. He tries to connect with him, and the result is something powerful, and also I believe where a lot of people are picking up the vibes which have lead to an increase in the popularity of theorizing Ralsei to be trans.
Consider Ralsei, convinced he is what he is and that is all he will ever be. Firmly believing his purpose is all he will ever be as a Darkner and if he deviates into the unknown everything will fall apart. This is easy to tie with the idea of transitioning and presenting as yourself in public; what if you do it, and everyone hates you now? What if you do it, and you were wrong all along? What if you regret it? What if it’s too late?
All of those anxieties are anathema to Flowery. He was nothing but a little helpless flower in a glass bubble, unable to do a thing for the man who had cared so deeply for him over the years, and what did he do? Transcended it. Disregarded it. He is more than just a flower, he is a human, because he believes himself to be. It’s his dream and he will make it true.
The way this manifests is, at first, teasing. Flowery does do a fair amount of that in this chapter, and it upsets Ralsei. I think people rightfully point out it's somewhat uncomfortable, and even Flowery apologizes for it eventually. I do, though, genuinely think that his purpose with a lot of this was trying to push Ralsei forward in thinking about the life he is living. He's challenging him to think harder about what he wants, even if the prospect of dwelling on it is terrifying.
A lot of people see parallels to how Flowery treats Ralsei with him basically trying to break Ralsei out of his egg. I certainly do! I just wonder how many people also follow the parallels with Flowery as someone who has done that himself, which puts him in a position to do this. He doesn’t have all the answers, he’s wrong about some stuff, but he knows someone suffering and hopeless as he was when he sees them, and he wants to help how he can.
At this point you can go, “Oh, those are just general themes and you’re tying them to being trans.” And you’re right! Or you would be, if not for the myriad of little hints people have been picking up on with Ralsei being interested in femininity, but afraid of displeasing others by not being a “prince.” That is where all those screenshots people keep dumping on you come into play. Go look for ‘em, this thing is long enough already, but they are there!
At this point you can go, “Oh, but Ralsei is interested in trying all sorts of things more independently.” And you’re right! But being feminine and cute is one particular thing that has remained consistent in how it is brought up since chapter 1. In fact, I would say it is probably the number one thing that he keeps returning to as something that fascinates him.
At this point you can go, “Oh, but maybe that just means he’s being interested in being feminine. That doesn’t mean he’s trans.” And you’re right! Maybe it just does mean that. We don’t know concretely either way yet! That’s why it’s being called a “theory.” And after an entire chapter about how you look not equating to what you are, and Ralsei struggling to understand and accept that, I feel like it’s one that you cannot discount offhand.
A friend of mine described this chapter as “the queerest thing Toby has ever written.” I think that’s most solidly expressed in the recurring theme that your inner self is just as important, or even more “real,” than your exterior. You see it in many of the enemies; the Netskies proud of their big fluffy tails that are clearly shrubs. The Terra Cottas, who are hard and burly but blossom from within when watered. Mew Mew, of course, who comes to terms with what she wants for herself both inside and out. She probably deserves her own dedicated essay, honestly! It goes well beyond terms of “it’s okay for you to be nonconforming to your gender” and lives firmly in the idea of “your body is immaterial to the contents of your soul.”
The flower children are perhaps the most obvious example of this; they want to be human. More than that, they insist they are human. They are often thrown into situations where they seem to have comically low concept of what humans even are, but all the same put together the concept piecemeal as they go. They never waver from their dream to be their ideal selves. It’s very easy to connect this to discovering yourself as not being the gender you were assigned at birth. It’s a process of learning what “woman,” “man”, and everything else in between really is.
So the flowers create their own definition of what being human is. And who are you to tell them that definition is wrong? Especially considering the fact that all of them can do their “Omega,” a special spell that Flowey used in Undertale…. By channeling the human souls. That’s just sort of built into them here, regardless of their origin as flowers. Food for thought.
Ralsei struggles with this, notably in the scenes with Orange. Orange is perhaps the most conventionally “non human” of the seven flowers, and Ralsei endlessly points this out and demeans Orange for it. Orange shoots right back at him about needing a hat to hide his face, a sore spot for Ralsei that makes him feel like he’s regressing when he wears it. I see a lot of “he/she started it!” It doesn’t matter. That’s not the point. They go back and forth the entire time Orange is on screen.
Essentially, they are microaggressing against each other. Both of them struggle with their appearance as related to their identity, and neither really understands how they’re offending each other until the final interaction the pair can have, where he finally seems to have come to understand what he had been doing and moves to correct it. I believe it’s a genuine and solid little bit of character development for Ralsei; he is seeing beyond Orange’s origin and purpose and considering the truths of the person inside of her. I also believe this to be directly tied to the concept of being trans. Yes, it ends in more jokes! That’s okay. Ralsei’s still learning, and so is Orange.
I don’t really see a lot of talk about it at all, but the trans symbolism applies to Flowery pretty solidly just the same as it does Ralsei and the rest of the flowers. He is living his ideal dream in the dark fountain as a human just the same as the others. His determination to be what he wishes to be is so strong, it carries all of his friends alongside him. Transmasc Flowery? Maybe, in his own way.
The only time Flowery’s confidence genuinely falters is his death. Faced with the fact that some things can’t simply be accomplished by following your dreams alone, he despairs that he was wrong. That flowers are nothing but weak things meant to look pretty, wither, and die. He is nothing but his form after all.
Ralsei’s answer to this is brief but it is fascinating in its own way and shows how much Ralsei has grown; he tries to heal him, even though both of them know it couldn’t work. In his own way, Ralsei is throwing logic out the window and trying to force a dream into existence, because he “has to try.” Is there a better description of Flowery’s approach to life than trying simply because you feel like that’s what you must do? And here’s Ralsei, doing the same.
A couple chapters ago, he was convinced that Darkners only existed for their “purpose”. As Flowery dies, Ralsei assures him of the opposite— it was he who was giving Asgore purpose. It’s a clear change in Ralsei’s own ideology, even if it isn’t a full break from the systems he operates within. And as frustrated with their differences as he can be, as much as he expected it to be the case, Flowery’s failure to make his dream come true hurts him deeply. I feel like the experience will change him permanently.
Thank you for reading all these words about a theory I never expected to be so supportive of, and about a funny flower man that I never expected to be so enamored with. I admit that this writeup was born just as much from people misunderstanding and mischaracterizing Flowery as it was people being shitty about Trans Ralsei. I think both play into each other pretty deeply! And if nothing else, I hope you walked away from this with a little bit better understanding of how their dynamic is more than just “Flowery is smug and bullies poor Ralsei”. It’s so much more complicated and interesting than that!
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