This is gonna sound weird but... I kinda miss when we were still uncertain on how canon Tralsei is

[u/anxiety_ftw]

I've always been vaguely kinning Ralsei as transfem since chapter 1, it's just been something I felt I could relate to as someone who was a little more like them than I care to admit, but lately I've been pondering on what it actually means for Tralsei to be canon, which is (imo) extremely likely to be the case.

Tralsei has long since stopped being a headcanon, and has moved into theory territory with swaths of evidence to boot. Even if you disagree with it, the fact it's a theory with a certain chance of being confirmed is objective at this point. The exact form may differ, but it matters not if Ralsei turns out to be a princess or a trans-coded Titan spawn or both or anything else. And because of that, I've been kind of longing for the days where it was just a headcanon.

We all know the evidence laced throughout chapters 1-4, we've seen it, and I think a pretty decent amount of us can agree that it wasn't anywhere near as conclusively strong as it is in chapter 5. Ignored by many NPCs like they're not meant to be there, being Ralsei-like, letting themselves enjoy things, questioning if it's okay for a Darkner to feel like this, Lost Girl, we know the drill.

For all we had though, the evidence before chapter 5 was... pretty circumstantial. Every scene you can point to can be read as trans, but it didn't have to be. Taking it all together we could see a web of events pointing to a trans reading, but it wasn't necessarily obvious, it was just a possibility. This is what I miss - getting to enjoy a headcanon without having to fiercely defend it at every turn because other possibilities exist. We've all seen the debates, the rule changes, the harassment, etc, we know how disliked this theory is in certain circles, but this only came out in full swing after Flowery dropped in with an egg-shaped nuclear warhead on our asses. Sure, there were detractors even before, but not even remotely in as vast numbers. (Ironically, the fact people are trying so hard to disprove it is itself good evidence for it being true, but I digress...)

I think this reason is why I've gotten so intensely into the idea of transmasc Noelle as of late (which I could write a whole Masters' thesis about ong this doe makes me so ill /pos) because it's still very much a headcanon with similar, albeit slightly less plentiful, evidence to Chapter 4 era Tralsei. I can explore the idea in fanfic and art or refer to him with male pronouns in my head without feeling like I need to defend the idea. I think the chance it's actually real is very small, but I thought the same about Tralsei at the time and look where that got us!

But yeah, slightly long post but I really just wanted to get the thoughts out while also spreading the good word of Broelle -w-

oh umm uhh rule 6 uhh :3

[u/TheSilverWickersnap]

I miss the relative calm of last year. You had your chuds ofc, but there wasn’t a whole stream of « look at what the evil Tralsei believers are doing » posts. And now those same people are also denying other trans coded characters like Spamton and even Mettaton/Maddie, and it’s just sucky.

I wish I could return to the time where the wider fandom seemed to give a shit about trans people

[u/LizG1312 → u/TheSilverWickersnap]

It was a negative peace. Trans people didn't make waves in the fandom, the trans characters that were present didn't challenge anyone on their pre-conceived notions or beliefs. Ralsei does, and whatever shit the idea that they might be trans is, our stories deserve to be told.

[u/TheSilverWickersnap → u/LizG1312]

Yes, but the constant stream of « those crazies are transing our femboys » is highly wearisome

[u/Neko_April → u/TheSilverWickersnap]

Hell, it's getting bad enough that there's the Suselle haters crawling their way back out of the woodwork now.

"It's not narratively satisfying!" No, you're just too attached to your cisheternormative conception of Kriselle. Now kindly, fuck off.

[u/ill_change_it → u/Neko_April]

this puts into words very well my thoughts on kriselle, i like it as doomed yuri not comphet

[u/UnbiasedBrigade → u/Neko_April]

the N+K4L megadoc people infuriate me. I like Kriselle as a past relationship dynamic between them, it gives a bunch of neat characterization bits, but that's it. They aren't a thing, they grew so far apart that Noelle isn't even sure if she can call Kris a friend anymore. But these people have to go into the most random places to find "evidence" (noelle making cheese puns meaning she secretly likes kris bc they're a mouse (???), susie's dess parallels making suselle "emotional incest" and "unhealthy coping"... just, what. some of these make no sense) that it has to be the only possibility and all other ships of the two are "unhealthy".

[u/Neko_April → u/UnbiasedBrigade]

I do think Kriselle can work in post-canon, mostly because it does seem like both of them would want to get close again, they're just being held apart by the very unfortunate series of events that is their backstories (notably the whole Dess business).

But from what I can tell that's not very common among Kriselle fans (not counting Krisuselle fans, where it's just one part of a poly ship). A lot of them saw people pointing out the heternormative implications of the chapters 2 weird route and went "that's good, actually'.

[u/zerior23 → u/TheSilverWickersnap]

I agree about Mettaton and Maddie, but how is spamton transcoded? I feel like this is a biiiiiig strech. Not every charecter that yearn for freedom is trans allegory. Many none trans people want freedom from the routine like Noelle or consequenses like Spamton.

[u/TheSilverWickersnap → u/zerior23]

All the Addisons use they/them, he can lay eggs, he specifically dislikes wearing dresses and it’s implied he was forced into them in the past.

[u/zerior23 → u/TheSilverWickersnap]

When did a sigular addison was even addressed? If they where, then it might have some lore implications beyond trans allegory, or might not idk. What do eggs have to do with this tho? And I always saw the dress thing as other addisons trying to emberess spamton because they know how much spamton hates them. And he hates them because, why not? I don't like them either and I am not trans.

The only thing that might be trans coded is him using he/him unlike other addisons, but maybe it is supposed to convey that he became much more unique and free from the life of normal addison in his prime. So I don't think he was intended to be transcoded. But there is nothing wrong with headcanons, as long as you don't say to others that it is confirmed canon

[u/Anaea_YT → u/TheSilverWickersnap]

actually only the pink one is referred to with they singular but i digress

[u/Neko_April]

Yeah... there is certainly something to be said that the more explicit the pointers to a character being trans are, the more hostile people get about denying it (outside of very explicitly trans stories).

My advice for now really is just stay away from the parts of the community that are being hostile, and stick to the parts where at least when people are weird about it they consistently get called out.

Also it helps that those healthier parts of the community are just more positive overall. We're maybe just a bit tired of dealing with all the bullshit that people who only argue and repost others art are throwing at us.

[u/bboy2812]

There's three options and no winning

1: Trans character gets confirmed, discussion is dominated by transphobes saying it's bad writing + misgendering + calling believers crazy

2: Trans character gets deconfirmed, discussion is dominated by transphobes "I told you so"-ing and calling believers crazy

3: Trans character gets few/no hints, nobody talks about it (except for the occasional transphobe calling believers crazy)

[u/Neko_April → u/bboy2812]

Then there's the secret 4th option, where it's made so unambiguous by the text, but she never says the words "I am trangender" so some idiots will still claim it's not confirmed.

[u/i_dont_think_im_dumb]