Nubert and the Trashy Trio's Gender

Wiki Discussion
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1

Hello, formerly ~2026-169764 (unregistered) here.

Currently, the three members of the Trashy Trio, Ball, Trashy, and Nubert, are listed as it/its,[1] they/them[2], he/him,[1] they/them[2], and he/him,[1] they/them[2] respectively.

However, for all three characters, [2] invariably cites:

  • "No I don't know why they disappeared. Its scary. — Starwalker, second interaction after one member of the Trashy Trio flies away into the air, Chapter 5".

I believe this is a mistake.

The way this scene is laid out, it is very likely that Toby Fox's intent is for the player to interact with Ball, Trashy, and Nubert once, causing all three of them to vanish into thin air one by one, and then interact with Starwalker twice as the only remaining character in the room who does not inexplicably fly away and vanish into thin air.

This leads to the joke of Starwalker breaking his[2][3] usual speaking pattern of "I'm the original Starwalker" to comment on how he is afraid of their dessappearance.

While it is possible to interact with Ball, Trashy, or Nubert first and then interact with Starwalker twice, I do not believe this is the intended way to read their dialogue.

It's important to note that Starwalker's dialogue does not change depending on whether the player talks to a TT member, then him, then another TT member.

If Toby did intend for all three characters to use they/them pronouns, he would probably alter Starwalker's sentence to make it more clear.

"No I don't know why they disappeared. Its scary." would therefore be used for a single TT member, and "No I don't know why they all disappeared. Its scary." would be used for all three members disappearing.

Additionally, it's important to note that in the case of characters who use multiple pronouns, this is clarified in their introductory chapter. For example, in the case of Lanino and Elnina:

  1. The sight of Elnina makes him want to be singin' in the rain. — Narration when "Check" is used on Lanino, Chapter 3
  2. HA!! They're just jealous!! Who needs their attack!!! WATCH!!!! — Elnina after Lanino leaves during their boss fight, Chapter 3
  3. She's just over the moon for Lanino. — Narration when "Check" is used on Elnina, Chapter 3
  4. Why are they being so dramatic? They only got second. — Pippins in the Green Room, Chapter 3

Or for an example from the same chapter as Trashy and Nubert, Chapter 2, the Hacker:

  1. This guy keeps telling everyone at the party he's a hacker.
    I don't know what to do with this information. — Wig Robot, 2F Dinner Party Section A, if Hacker is present, Chapter 2
  2. i was given a lot of creative freedom for my characters, the only prompt i was given was "it's set in cyberspace". the first guy i designed was the Hacker, i also came up with a puzzle involving him that was so much fun to see implemented! i'm very thankful for this opportunity! — @splendidland on Twitter, September 27, 2021. Archived on September 27, 2021.
  3. There's supposed to be another guest here, but they're late.
    They called and said something about blue checkmarks... — Wig Robot, 2F Dinner Party Section A, if Hacker is not present, Chapter 2
  4. Hacker Guy (idk what their name is), wants to discover the secrets of the world and has special abilities, though they aren't aware of them. "Hacks" by randomly smashing keys and even swinging their mouse around in the air, could keep escalating in silly ways. — Undertale/Deltarune Newsletter - Autumn 2024 (Splendidland, September 15, 2024.) toby.fangamer.com.
  5. he's based on being a badass Matrix Guy — @splendidland on Twitter, September 19, 2021. Archived on September 20, 2021.

This is despite the fact that Hacker is a side character on or even below the level of Nubert and Trashy.

It's been 5-8 years since these characters were introduced. I don't believe Toby would clarify that the three of them use they/them pronouns now using a sentence this poorly worded.

Therefore, I suggest that the pronouns should be removed in a similar fashion to how aliases are only listed if they are noteworthy and not one-off gags. Alternatively, a (Starwalker dialogue) or (?) could be added similar to Ralsei's "they/them ("Dark Vine" title)[4]" to indicate the ambiguity.

EDIT: Incidentally, this would also mean that the Trashy Trio's gender would quite literally be up to the player's interpretation, as only one of them can be referred to as they/them individually in a single playthrough before Starwalker's dialogue would apply to two or more of them once the next one disappeared. In other words, whoever you picked first would be they/them, and the others would be ambiguous.

2

It should just be removed. This is "but its name wasn't YELLOW"-level to me. Pre-Chapter 5, you could have an it/its for every enemy via sparing them before their name being yellow. Obviously, this didn't lead to an it/its for all of them, since it isn't a specific dialogue for them.

This is the same situation with the Trashy Trio; one dialogue is reused for three characters. It's likely that Toby intended for it to be seen after all three left, but, outside of that, it's again, not a line of text directed at one character, it's reused for multiple scenarios. Not notable.

BTW this is Wiki Discussion not Deltarune Discussion. It should be recategorized.

3

Thank you, I didn't notice. I'll try to recategorise it now.

EDIT: Hmm, that's odd. It already seems to say Deltarune Discussion.

4

Yep, that's the problem. It's incorrect, it should be Wiki Discussion.

5

This. I clicked on this thread to compare the Starwalker line to exactly this. This same line, depending on player choice, can refer to:

  • Ball alone
  • Trashy alone
  • Nubert alone
  • Ball and Trashy
  • Ball and Nubert
  • Trashy and Nubert
  • Ball, Trashy, and Nubert

The latter 4 all require a “they”, and the final case is what 99% of players will see, so the dialogue was written for that case and the developers didn’t bother to implement alternate dialogue for the other cases.

6

@KockaAdmiralac can we remove? Large consensus here is to remove.

7

Yes.