#fluffy boy

Hey there! Rando from the internet speaking again.

The recent development in chapter 5 have also caused some distress in many fans for our dearly beloved Ralsei - or, more implicitly, Ralsei’s implied coming out as a transwoman (or trans woman, depending what writing you prefer), or (perhaps) non-binarity.

While other fans have been cheerful and with sparkles in their eyes, others looked at said development with sadness. Given arguments have been that they would prefer a feminine, but otherwise cis-gendered Ralsei. Maybe a bit fruity. Maybe a bit gay. For a better representation of feminine/fruity/gay men and boys in media!

I’ve voiced my opinion about this already. Ralsei is a character, not a person, within a story, written by an author, who can develop the character in whatever way it pleases him. There is no obligation for any development whatsoever for Ralsei to be written in a specific way, you can like this or not - and if you do not like the canon version, why not make up you own Fan-Ralsei to your own liking? (After all, it is not like the transwoman-adorers wouldn’t make up their own little headcanons and ships about Ralsei in other ways.)

Thing is, while this sounds all nice and logical, I still also found myself in the crowd of guys sad about a Ralsei who feels like a female with she/her pronouns - a situation which makes me pretty pissed about myself.

I am in no way against transness in the slightest - some of my best friends are trans (Disclaimer: I know what this sounds like, you don’t have to tell me, it is a joke), and I see no reason in neglecting the wish of someone who feels body-or genderdysmorphia to change their life for the better, ergo choosing the gender, names, pronouns, or body etc. that they wish to have. And yet, with Ralsei, I was saaaaad. What is going on here? Why this NIMBY-ism from my side from me when in comes to them?

In my case, like for many other people I presume, is it that I identify with Ralsei to a degree. We both like certain things attributed to femininity, we both like being friendly, heck, we both wear glasses, we like to collect – or wanting to collect – plushies, and even have an affinity for horsies (looks up to MLP plushies). And so far, we both also seemed to be male, even though the idea of transness and Ralsei had been brought up before. But, trans - I am not, no. And here the joy of overidentification begins.

This is not about loosing an icon or an ideal for myself - more feminine men or boys in the media are available like sand at the seaside. No, even though Ralsei is just a character, I have spend a lot of time thinking about them, drawing them, or even using them as a symbol in chats. Some people by this point have to *think of me* when they see Ralsei.

I noticed that some fanartists, or artists in general, tend to refer to the characters they draw as their daughters or sons. Isn’t that interesting?

People who maybe still live at home (if not most of them, lots of people in the community are teenagers or young adults) do not in the slightest wish to become a parent, but feel enough connection to a fictional character that they call them their child, and state how *proud* of them they are!

Now, if this is possible, then it is fair to assume that in my case, we can see the same effect - only that I am not happy about the way my beloved child is developing. Like many parents, or fathers with sons, I have developed a picture if my child which now is cracked, if not cracked up (See? See? Metaphor!!!).

As someone who grew up under a father who told me in the face that they “do not accept me the way I am”, without even realising the weight of these words, I certainly know that I don’t want to turn into a kind of person who is not okay with the normal development of people around them - or in this case, some odd fictional father not happy with the development of their fictional offspring.

And from a rational, logical point of view, it is quite clear how to act in this situation IMO. Accept your child for what it is. That's what a good parent does. It's not up to your. It is not *about* you.

But that’s how it is. Logic can change circumstances as fast as a light switch can be turned on and off.

Emotions? They take time. We are not built to change the way we feel about someone, or something, like simply pressing a button. We have a choice HOW we treat them - emotions are not our actions - but no matter how we do it in the end, they must find their natural course through our system, until we can accept certain things and move on.

This is also why Flowery is such a jerk in chapter 5 towards Ralsei - just because you have come to terms with things already, doesn’t mean someone else can also just do it as easily when certain emotions are connected with it (among other things - the Ralsei-Flowery dynamics are more complex, I am aware of that).

What I am trying to say is, if you see someone sad about Ralsei not just being a gay toothpaste boy now, do not just smear into their face that they should shut it and just move on. For move on they will, if not when the last 2 chapters come out and the story comes to an end.

That is, of course, if that is all that there is. As I have said before, if someone acts like Ralsei has been the cishet hero of the universe so far and the transness- aspects sucks, well. Certain people don’t want to see things, especially in the times we are living in. Or, more bluntly – if someone is acting like an… (looks up Ralsei vocabulary) unhealthy, unfriendly and unpleasant fella who is not open for positive and useful suggestions, maybe it is a better idea to move on from there, or dismiss the conversation whatsoever.

In the end, time will bring the truth and heal all wounds. And I don’t want to be a dismissive parent towards the nicest fluffiest goat I know. No matter what pronouns they will use in the end, what gender they have, be it prince, princess or both - I have trust that they will be a well-written, round character, and I will be okay with what they are.

It’s nice that Ralsei is Ralsei.

I usually don’t write blog posts (who cares what some rando on the interwebs has to say anyhoo), buuuuut regarding the negative feedback that the 5th chapter of DELTARUNE is receiving lately, I thought I’d throw my 5 (2?) cents into the discussion pool as well.

While I can see that the chapter is by far not as carefree or joyful as previous chapters (and they’ve become heavier in terms of seriousness anyway), I’d still say it might be one of the best chapters so far in terms of storytelling and its core message, or messages. One could also say, chapter 5 is not a narrative/story that a lot of people WANT, but that a lot of us desperately need to hear in the times we are living in.

Other people have deciphered the point of the narratives already. Ralsei in a dress, falling (coming) out of the closet, the MewMew boss battle (still gotta do that one, missed it on my first playthrough), and Ralseis conflict with Flowery, who has no problems giving himself superpowers without a care in the world for what it might does in the long run, which Ralsei, a stickler to the rules for his whole life so far, cannot just ignore and detests with a passion.

Clearly, all of his is an allegory for what it means to be trans or on the LGBTQ spectrum, you can say, it’s quite blatant (and if there are really people who still hung on the fact that Ralsei is cis, what have you been smoking?). I’m not saying that Rals *is* trans, I just say the narrative seems to heavily imply with its writing that this is a logical conclusion to what is going on in the story.

However, the power of DELTARUNE, and why I love it’s writing, is that while it is quite direct in certain ways, it still allows a lot of room for interpretations about its meaning. Yes, I see that chapter 5 is a parable for transness, but as I already said – the given aspects to me do not just work for someone who is trans.

It could easily just be a story about discovering that you are gay while you grew up in a conservative household for sure. But I think we can go even more broader then that.

Chapter 5 shows you that by all the rules given to you, you should not forget to dream and never give up your dreams as well, even if this might go, or does go, against said rules, or even if it seems that it’s pointless in the end to do so, because we are doomed to fail from the getgo, because it is *never* pointless to be a good person for yourself and the people around you in the end.

Flowery can be quite a douche to others, and is aware that he does not have a plan about how everything will end – quite possibly end badly! But he tries his best to be a good guy for the other flowers, the other darkners in the flower shop, as well as Asgore and for them to have a good time, so that they can live their lives in joy, even if only for a limited amount of time, and even though everything *seems* pointless in the end.

Is it pointless to know you make it possible for you and your friends to have a good time? Especially in the face of complete destruction?

These days, it is hard for many of us to stay cheerful, or even hopeful. I remember a friend telling me, completely defeated, that it just seems that humankind is evil, we are destroying the world around us, everything is just for the dumpster. We are burning to a crisp thanks to global warming – something known to us for ages, yet we still deny it or fight properly acting in the race of it -, people in charge do not care for the well-being of others, the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, to have empathy for others is seen as a weakness,and to be as ass as a virtue, while people are filling their coffers with more money they could ever use in a million lifetimes, because that’s all they learned to do in this world.

And yet. Even if we might cannot change this. Even if the upcoming years and decades will be quite bad for a lot, if not all of us. You must not just hold up these rules or possible outcomes as the great prophecy we all must life and suffer under. We are in this together. We are not dead yet. We can still dream. And we can still try to make our lives with the powers given to us a bit better. And even if we cannot rescue the whole world, maybe make it a better journey for those who are with us on this ride we didn’t ask for. And maybe, in this process, we will help other people in this process to discover their dreams as well, which will make life, in the end, better for them – even if, in the long run, some things will go down the drain that we just cannot control.

Why not try to make things better and live your dreams. Why not discover what you can be in a world, even if by the given rules, everything just seems to end in catastrophy?

And yeah, this is easier said then done, and not everyone of us can just go hypergod-mode and turn the world in a wonderful garden of flowers. The rules can actively harm us, and even make it harder for us to even dare to act against them. But just as we should not forget to dream, we should also not forget to hope, and not forget that just because some things seem to be written in stone, that said stones can’t be broken, or can be even wrong, or not the last thing we should think about when we act in our lives.

We shall continue to hope and dream. To live the best life we can.

And all of this got delivered to you in the story of conflict between an anime flower boy and a fluffy goat in a potato sack.