id like to start this out with a SHUT THE FUCK UP ABOUT "GNC ERASURE" IF YOU GENUINELY CARED YOU WOULD LOVE BLUE + TRANSGENDER REP IS WAY MORE IMPORTANT THEN GNC REP. SHUT THE FUCK UP. SECOND OF ALL I AM TIRED OF BEING NICE AND KIND I WILL BE BASHING PEOPLE IN THE REPLIES. THIRD OF ALL THE TERM "FEMBOY" IS HEAVILY SEXUALISED, USED IN PORN, AND A CONSIDERED A SLUR IN SOME TRANSFEM SPACES FOR A REASON. SAY FEMININE MEN.
forth of all i love ralsei and i will be using she/her pronouns for ralsei in this entire thread, i want a place to put all my transfem ralsei thoughts, i believe the trans coding for ralsei was being written before chapter 5, and i have watched multiple videos on this. i am a transgender man myself, and while i can talk on the general topic of being transgender i do not know most of the experiences transgender women go through, and if you are a transgender woman yourself or on the transfem spectrum, PLEASE let me know your thoughts.
my sources come from my own thoughts and reading, and this playlist i found on youtube ill link below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juT5fR24MXI&list=PLDlQ6jz0btSI
Beware, i will be going back and forth on chapters a lot. This is unorganized and badly written, i have ADHD and it makes me go back on my statements while writing.
OK NOW TO THE POINT
In the very beginning of chapter 1, ralsei’s sprite was extremely similar to the riverpersons,with a hooded figure and a shadowed face. seen here
One of the first things the riverperson says is quote “Tra la la. I am the riverman.
Or am I the riverwoman...? It doesn't really matter.” and now, looking at how ralsei’s character is going, i like to believe this is some type of foreshadowing.
Even after ralsei took off the hood, she was wearing her hat which is heavily implied for her to not like wearing, and at the end of the chapter she takes this hat off. This completely changes her form, making her generally present more femininely along with change her face shape.
Despite no longer being in the form of wearing the hat, she is often displayed with the hatted ralsei version in the battle menu icons and in tenna’s minigames, with the only acception being in the party menu, seen here.
Over all, the UI is unchanging in the story, unwilling to acknowledge ralsei no longer wearing her hat. But, in chapter 5, stated by tumblr user vvkingofgaybisciutsvv, the UI acknowledged ralsei’s pronoun change, referring to her with They/Them. This is huge considering how despite ralsei’s icons not changing, as if the game is saying “you cant defy the prophecy, even if you not physically you will always be wearing that hat.”, it started using They/Them when talking about ralsei. One of the most unmoving, unchangeable parts of the game changed to acknowledge that.
Despite all of this, her character is painfully aware of the prophecy and is slightly implied to be scared of it. The prophecy seems to be a constant thought in her head, and it etched into her character, making her believe shes useless and doesnt need to have her own thoughts an opinions, since she believed her only use was being useful to the lighteners, and to kris specifically. In this prophecy, she is referred to as a prince. If she ends up transitioning, she would be directly rejecting the prophecy. This is later reinforced with a lot of dialouge about her wanting and telling kris she could be a princess, seen here.
Despite seemingly disliking the prophecy and going against it, it seems like she seems hopeless to prevent it and shocked if it gets defied. She shows this hopelessness in chapter 3, where she insists on playing tenna’s games as she knows tenna later gets slashed and (if not in a mercy route) dies from the roaring knight. Because of all this, she was seemingly okay with just being a tool and an object for the lighteners. As the chapters progressed, however, its shown she slowly regains her passion of being her own person, shown later in chapter 3 where she insists on her face being her own and not asriels, and her decorating her room in chapter 5. Theres a few more scenes and subtext of her becoming her own person, but overall its a huge part in the game’s story and her own character arc. Because of this, Ralsei being transfem would play hand in hand with her becoming her own character and defying the prophecy.
I have a lot more to write, so i will edit this post later, but it is currently 1:20 AM and id like to get some sleep.
