Archive of Our Own

Part 0: Cosmology

If you remember the moment early on in the Dark Sanctuary where the Old Man purposefully breaks panels ahead of the trio to mess with Susie, once she leaves the screen with Ralsei in tow, you can talk to the Old Man, and if you pick the right option, he says something rather interesting. He mentions that he felt the light of the words on the glass was so bright he couldn't see where he was going, an obvious play into how his breaking this particular panel was what opened the path forward. Right afterward, however, he mentions (paraphrasing) "preferring the space between the lines, because it's darker there." What he has said here is more or less a parable that explains the entire cosmology of Deltarune's greater world; Light, most pure in the words of the Prophecy, corresponds to cold truth, whilst Dark is the interpretation and the connections one makes to understand the truth. Before I fully extrapolate, remember also that Ralsei describes the Titan as "the fear-of-dark… the shadow of the backside of the mind." Titans are "darkness roaring wild," the stuff in its most intense form, and it has been linked directly with the subconscious. A primal thing in our minds that responds to stimuli that perhaps don't exist at all. That's Darkness in its purest form.

So, what's Light in its purest form? Let's build out the system first. In the world of Deltarune, we are initially presented with a cosmology of two worlds: the Light World, the "more real" version of what I will call the "vague world" one sees when light behaves properly, and the Dark World, a different perspective of this "vague world" under stricter, more unnatural terms that go against the typical order. Dark Fountains are a means of penetrating down a layer, reshaping the terms of the vague world's reality in order to see what exists under this new lens. Both Light and Dark worlds are projections fueled by light and negative light, and while the Dark World exists under stricter conditions than the Light World, they are both part of something whole. The latter is simply the dominant form.

Now recall what the Old Man said about the words of the Prophecy. The light is the truth, so blinding it can lose meaning, while the darkness is something else that's less stable. Is the Light World so necessarily rigid? Absolutely not. The Light World is still very much a living, breathing place within Deltarune's own broader cosmology, populated by people with histories, feelings, contradictions. The Light World is not pure light, merely conditioned by it as per the words of the Prophecy. So, then, our target is something more rigid, and our next answer up the rung is simple: the Prophecy itself. The Prophecy is a sort of "rulebook" for certain events that are supposed to happen that govern both Light and Dark Worlds; a "Legend," as it calls itself.

If you've been keeping a close eye out, though, we can't stop there. Above the ruleset of the Prophecy is the "survey program," the thing which we are summoned to enter by the Voice (that's very probably Gaster but for the sake of agnosticism they are "the Voice") for the purpose of "creating a new future." We are, simply put, the independent variable of a science experiment meant to test whether or not the future of this world with its fate-governing Prophecy can be changed. The Voice wants us to insert ourselves into the world bounded beneath this Prophecy, and thus the Voice in our order of worlds is superior even to that Prophecy, or at the very least on its same level as a peer in much the way a scientist is peer to the results of their experiment. But there's one wrinkle left: us. The Soul we control is our means of interface with everything that resides within Deltarune the game, and the way by which we real people pierce through the (theoretically) unbreakable bounds of its code in order to interface.

To recapitulate, in descending order, instead of looking at a system of simply "Light World is more real than Dark World," in measure of "reality" or "truth" we have the following:

Us > [The Code of Deltarune > The Voice, The Vessel, The Prophecy > (Light World > Dark World)]

Now, I know this is a lot I've dumped on you. If you've survived these 1000 words, congratulations! You're at the much easier part: the actual character analysis this essay is about.

Part 1: Ralsei the Philosopher

Let's get some things clear. Ralsei was born with two precise sets of knowledge: the rules of the "worlds," and the Prophecy. He has full comprehension of every mechanic about the Dark World, including precise knowledge of all the types of Darkner. He knows the Prophecy down to the letter. But, when we see Ralsei confront the moment-to-moment issues of the story, of knowing people within the bounds of the Light and Dark Worlds, he is almost completely clueless. He doesn't understand people at all, but he perfectly comprehends the ruleset of the Experiment in which we take part, though he does not seem to realize that it is an Experiment. As far as he's concerned, he knows what there is to know about every parameter of the Experiment with minimal knowledge of the people and beings who populate it aside from their surface-level traits. One might be tempted to assume, then, that Ralsei's journey of identity, the main purpose of this essay, is them learning to put aside the rules and discover how to be who they are in this world, filling themself up with experiences and knowledge of the beings who exist within the Experiment.

But that, while close, is not quite right. Why, might you ask? Because, simply put, Ralsei has always been more than the rules.

Part 1.1: Ralsei's Dual Deceptions

When we are introduced to our Prince, we witness a crucial characteristic of theirs. He welcomes us before spinning his first deception: the sanitized version of the Prophecy he dubs the "Legend" in an imitation of what the real Prophecy calls itself. He offers us this neat little tale about the world coming into danger, only to be saved by heroes who will appear at the time of crisis and rebalance the Light and Dark. He even tells us that he thinks it's nice! Yet we all know by now the true nature of the Prophecy and what it really says will happen, and that itself came after him being forced to exposit what the nature of the world-ending threat actually is… but that's not all that Ralsei was hiding. The Legend speech was concocted to deceive the Lightners into trusting a fairy tale, but Ralsei himself wanted to trust it, too. To quietly change the real thing into the simple little story he presented.

To want such a thing, however, one must do more than simply look at two stories. What Ralsei did, though they do not understand it even now, was to judge the real thing as abhorrent. The Prophecy's ending must not come to pass. Ralsei made that decision, but is so wrapped up in their own issues that they can't see it.

Part 1.2: Ralsei the Logician

One might argue that it's the result of a Darkner's purpose, but we cannot accept that; from the beginning we have been shown that Ralsei's ideas of purpose were skewed. If anything, it appears that Ralsei made the following logical steps, using only pieces of information the game has given us (including from within Ralsei's own speech in Chapter 3):

Premise: Darkners can only exist under strict conditions compared to Lightners. Darkners are born from objects. Darkners are shaped by the minds and behaviors of Lightners, and the Fountains.

Argument: Lightners use these objects. Lightners imprint what they want out of these Darkners-in-disguise. Darkners only become fully-formed when in the presence of a fountain, and are otherwise "less real."

Conclusion: Therefore, as Darkners are tied to objects or concepts, and Lightners make use of these objects or concepts, the Darkners in turn are crafted to serve these needs, and it is thus perfectly natural for Darkners to serve Lightners.

Ralsei's logic here isn't too far off the mark. Let's look at the main chapter bosses: King was embittered by having his purpose revoked; Queen wanted to serve Noelle and help her; Tenna wanted to make the Dreemurrs smile again, one last time; Flowery and the other Flowers wanted to repay Asgore for his unending care of them, to show him love that he'd given every day for probably two decades at least. Each one of these Darkners corroborates Ralsei's conclusion. Of course, Ralsei's logic is still heavily flawed, but for the time being, what matters is that he used logic. He made connections, read between the lines of the rules of the world that had existed within him from the start, did things a simple object abiding by rules could not. Logic might appear cold and absolutist, but it is truly predicated on personhood, even in the simplest terms.

Part 1.3: Blindness and Kindness

Do you see what has happened? Ralsei performed actions which necessitated the use of what we have established as being roughly equivalent to "darkness," but Ralsei does not realize that he's performed this rationalization, and time and time again, we see the flaws of this conclusion. If Ralsei had no identity, why did the ending of the Prophecy appall them? If they had no predilection, why did they choose kindness? In mistaking conclusion for premise, Ralsei has utterly denied themself every bit of identity, their identity as a Darkner, and finds themself only staring at the words through a lens they don't realize exists. All he sees is what he believes to be the truth.

It's quite ironic, then, that every time Ralsei expresses their identity without pause for approval or hesitation, they're usually quite right about things. Ralsei's most blatant early exertion of identity comes from that fear and anger response to seeing the Last Prophecy and their decision that kindness, sheer, pure kindness, is the way to achieve such a thing. They tells us as much before you even enter Card Kingdom, though in that part of the story they're still very closeted. One might be fooled into thinking that the fight with King has proved them wrong, seeing as their decision to heal King nearly got the party wiped and were only saved by either Lancer coming in or Susie tiring him out enough for Ralsei to use pacify, but further analysis shows us that Ralsei was kinda right. If you were fully kind, you get saved anyway; if you were not, Susie, the opposite of Ralsei, realizes the solution is Ralsei's unique sparing method and helps pull that off. Later down the line, too, we're shown the Prophecy panel that foretells what appears like a pretty clear indication of Tenna's death. "THE LORD OF SCREENS, CLEAVED RED BY BLADE." We know that Darkners don't really bleed, but a line like this doesn't seem good. However, if you followed Ralsei's instincts and were kind to the Darkners of TV World, they will find Tenna, and Susie and Ralsei work together to heal him.

Sadly, of course, Ralsei doesn't really seem to recognize the ramifications of what he has done. That one Prophecy panel told nothing but the truth, yet in being kind, Ralsei has changed its meaning. Between the lines of the truth there was room for interpretation, and when push came to shove, their interpretation changed things for the better. Remember that the words of the Prophecy have been correlated with Light, and the meaning revealed between the lines by Dark. We'll revisit the true meaning of this moment later.

Part 1.4: When Ralsei Cannot Rationalize

There's another side to this coin of Ralsei's identity and how often they are unable to reconcile with their inner philosopher. At the end of Chapter 4 in the Weird Route, telling Ralsei that it's okay for them to not smile gets them to, in place of reclaiming their aspirations, admit a very primal fear response. Ralsei cannot understand what's happening as things pull away from the scripts he was given, and more and more his understanding of the world has gotten foggier (Chapter 5's Weird Route hints at Ralsei being deathly afraid of what might happen to Kris at this point). There's also the matter of how the Weird Route begins to break the rules of the Experiment, which is also fundamental to Ralsei's obsession with truth at their own expense. What is most critical here, however, is that if the rules of the world, the rules Ralsei has contorted their identity around, are to fall apart, Ralsei has no recourse. Falling back on the truths of the Light is impossible when the truths cease to exist. Where does that leave our Prince?

Nowhere.

Ralsei must acknowledge the full existence of their rationalizations and inner identity in order to move forward. As we've established, however, Ralsei cannot simply disobey their assumptions even as the premises prove false, because despite their logic, it should not be forgotten that their primal exertions of identity are emotional responses. Fear of the Last Prophecy. Repression at his conclusions about the immutability of the Prophecy and the rules of the greater Experiment. Hope, most crucially hope at the idea that their actions can make a difference even in the face of perceived truths. Ralsei still desperately struggles with the existence of these emotional responses, and indeed within the text of Chapter 4 states his claim to them as though they're something completely new, external to him instead of foundationally intrinsic. I don't believe a Ralsei that exists within the context of the Weird Route could achieve the actualization they deserve; it's no coincidence that The Ralsei Chapter is basically entirely skipped by performing the Lake Wrong Warp correctly and forcing the Experiment to ask for external help by telling whoever's watching to go ahead and insert Chapter 7 because it has been so thoroughly dismantled.

Isn't it interesting how the Experiment must behave in such a way when its own rules are shattered, just like how Ralsei must?

Part 2: "Escapism"

Let's take a quick look back. So far we have established that Ralsei is fundamentally reliant on their own conclusions about the rules of the world given them more than the rules themselves. We have similarly pointed out that Ralsei is, at their core, a very emotions-driven person who tries despite themself to maintain a simplistic facade with respect to their understanding of the world. Most notable of all, however, is that to change the full truth of the Prophecy, the Light that guides the Experiment, Ralsei must move beyond their station. If a Darkner is as bound as Ralsei believes, how could that possibly occur?

Part 2.1: It's Not That Simple

It's a very, very pervasive sentiment among Deltarune's players that Deltarune is a story concerned primarily with escapism. Each of the Dark Worlds seem to represent a fantasy that gives people an escape from the "reality" of the Light World and their problems there, and the game is no stranger to highlighting the importance of Dark Worlds in helping the characters of the Light World grapple with themselves and grow. Susie using the Dark World as a place to sleep in absence of the trust of adults she grapples with is widely regarded as an unhealthy use of escapism, indulging too much in the fantasy of somewhere safe at the cost of her ability to address her own problems. Have a talk with Toriel, maybe try to get some conflict resolution with her dubiously-existing parents, further her connections with others instead of trying to restrain her adventures in the Dark World to just be her and Kris. I've seen some go so far as to act like Susie's second time sleeping in the Dark World is nothing more than her sleeping alone on the cold, dusty floor of the school closet. They lament the sadness of the situation, but rarely do they pay attention to the exact circumstances of Susie's decision to sleep there, and heavily neglected is the fact that the Dark World is less of an escape than people assume.

Chapter 4, however, has already told us to never trust this idea of escapism. Susie's arc in that chapter had so much to do with her sense of belonging and how the Prophecy offered her, at long last, a means of belonging as someone she wanted to be instead of the frankly really underwhelming "bully" she used to be typecast as (it's even almost directly stated that the only person she ever bullied was Kris, and everything else she "did" was calling people really lame names like she tried to do in Card Kingdom; all of her belonging issues are the cause of others instead of herself). She was promised purpose. Without hesitation, she ate it up. After all, she was a hero, right? A fundamentally good person designed to save the world? Along the way, however, she ignored the warnings given to her along the way. She failed to process the Old Man's hints about how the "words on the wall" were less important than her herself, and similarly entirely failed to understand the severity of Ralsei's evasiveness until she genuinely broke his trust in seeing the Last Prophecy against his wishes and the terms of their promise. It was only when the terror of that final truth set in did she realize that being the hero she touted herself as was going to ultimately betray her. The Prophecy is inescapable, after all. As long as she remains active with the Dark Worlds, which her sense of justice leads her to all the more strongly with each appearance of the Knight, she will never be safe.

That is to say, the Dark World is escapist for her because she tries to make it that way even though the writing is on the wall. So why do people act as though the Dark World is inherently an escape, again?

Part 2.2: The Inverted Paradigm

There's another challenge that the Prophecy poses to the outdated hierarchy of the worlds within the Experiment that I find incredibly crucial, and as you can guess, it has to do with Ralsei. We noted before that Ralsei's intuitions and goals inspired from their own personhood are broadly along the right track, and it is when they hyperfixate on what they take to be "truths" that they become deluded. Let's revisit that old paradigm from Part 0, stripping away the parts unnecessary to this point:

The Prophecy > [The Light World > The Dark World]

The bracketed sections are the contents of the Experiment, while the Prophecy appears closer to a control case thereof. The rules Ralsei talks about are included in that same higher layer. In stark opposition to Susie, who finds false safety in the world "below" her, Ralsei is too fixated on something two layers "above" him to acknowledge who he truly is, and quite sadly, it is these hidden truths about himself that seem to accomplish his goal the best. That is to say, when Ralsei works on self-acceptance and acknowledges their own issues, that is when Ralsei can solve the problems that they have been facing all story. This is part of the genius of Flowery's position as a bully/rival/mentor; a Darkner who spits in the face of all the rules with no clear plan exposes some of Ralsei's wants, sometimes drawing them out through excessive degradations and others through genuine connection, is exactly what Ralsei needed to contend with. Flowery never really had a point with what he was doing and knew that, but his actions still gave Ralsei a warning and a chance to grow, a chance to acknowledge more of what they are. Flowery had no plan, but Ralsei… Ralsei used to have one. Not anymore.

I think it is also worth mentioning that a lot of Ralsei's fantasies are mundanities in the Light World, particularly evinced by their dialogues in Chapter 3. Flowery and Ralsei both call the Dark World "fantasy," but the reality is that both of them are real insofar as they exist as Darkners and dream of seeing the sun. It's particularly tragic, and particularly striking towards Ralsei, that Flowery could only have that desire for a single, short day. Chapter 4 has a stealthy little couplet about this framing in the Weather Duo refight, where Susie's ACT has her "dream of starry nights" whilst Ralsei "hopes for sunny days." While it's true that the Dark World can be used as a fantasy as Susie tries to do, it's possible for Darkners to view the Light World as their own fantasy, and both ways are as unhealthy as the manner in which the person tries to use the other world. Light and Dark are meant to coexist, and we see from the Fun Gang's trio dynamics that Light can be used to grow a Darkner just as Dark can be used to grow a Lightner.

Part 2.3: It's Not Absolute

I would be remiss not to include a little note about Kris, whom I consider additional evidence of my point. Kris in the Light World is a typecasted loner who, due to various social pressures alongside what reads like a really, really serious case of depression that others don't know how to or simply don't at all address, can't escape the rigid path their life has settled into. They have connections that are rather unfulfilling; they study with Noelle, they play games with Berdly, but it's still stalled. In the Dark World, they're acting on the strings of a promise they seem to have made over their own emotional guilt about what happened in the past, and if you pay careful attention, you can tell by the vividness of their descriptions and actions how much they're struggling between their ties and their growing investment in the story. On top of it all, they have to deal with the weird entangling issue with us and all the "cage" stuff where it gets really unclear if we're caging Kris or if Kris is caging us (I think it's both, personally). What matters, however, is that no matter where they go, they desperately struggle against themself, stuck in the balance of reconnecting with old friends and making new ones just as the grip of their promise and the impending fate of the Prophecy bears down on them. We're almost always there, too; sometimes we help them break free, but others, we reinforce their issues. For Kris, there is no escape.

Everything we're told is that ultimately, if the characters want to progress, they have to deal with the problems that constrict them, and that while they all need relief from their issues, "escapism" isn't an option unless the characters go out of their way to distort something into escapism; it's not inherently such. I recognize that the distinction between the idea I'm presenting and actual escapism is rather murky, but I hold that the old fandom ideas of escapism are too crisp and one-sided for a story that deliberately muddies the waters, no matter how the relative simplicity of Susie's story makes things appear.

Part 3: Identity and Gender

So far, we've covered Ralsei's identity crisis mostly in the past-tense with the aid of context given to us in newer chapters. We know well by now the inner dissonance between Ralsei's hyperfixation on the truths of the Experiment, the rationalizations they make under the surface, and the rebellious responses of their character they hide behind self-deception. We know that Ralsei defaults to subservience based off conclusions that likely aren't as valid as they think. But more than ever before, Chapter 5 has put into the spotlight exactly who Ralsei is underneath all these things and why how these cognitive dissonances work. Let's dig in.

Part 3.1: Spoken vs Unspoken

When things that Ralsei genuinely wants are brought to light, their reaction usually plays out one of two ways. Ralsei will either clam up a bit, hiding their emotions, or they'll blatantly admit to wanting something before realizing what they've said and then pretend they don't feel what they do. Take the Ralsei & Seth hangout conversation, for instance. Ralsei and Seth air their grievances with Flowery and come to find that, not only do they both agree on pretty much every point, but that they have this pent-up desire to lead so Flowery will stop running roughshod over everything and determining things to follow rather thoughtlessly to the beat of his own drums. When Seth comes right out and says they think they should be the leader, Ralsei yells back "EXACTLY!" Only after a pause does Ralsei realize what they said and says that actually they don't want to be a leader.

Probably the 2nd most famous scene in Chapter 5 when it comes to Transfem Ralsei Evidence is the one with the princess dress Ralsei puts on when there's no other princesses to be there. I don't think I need to belabor the point too much; I'm not the biggest Transfem Ralsei person out there and others would explain it much better than I could, but the salient point is that Ralsei says they're okay with not distinguishing "prince" and "princess" beyond manner of presentation, after which he slowly adds "so long as it's what other people want, of course!" It's a pretty surprisingly nonchalant thing of Ralsei to say, given Ralsei's obsession with their understanding of the Prophecy, you'd think it'd be blasphemy, but nah, it's cool so long as you give permission.

You can see the pattern here. Ralsei wants rather a lot of things, and where identity is a much thinner and more blurry thing than what they perceive as absolute truth, their attempts to hide things are remarkably unsubtle. They might as well state their obvious disappointment. But why does Ralsei do this? It's as simple as Ralsei manifesting their conclusions about who they should be in order to try to mask what they really obviously want. Once they speak something into existence, that thing transforms from some unknown inner quality into a thing that Ralsei has forced themself to recognize, and it's only by self-denial or deferring to another authority that they can feel like they're allowed to accept it.

But what if Ralsei's not the one to pose an idea first? Let's look at a few cases: one from Susie, one from Kris, and one from Ralsei.

Susie is frequently the person who prompts Ralsei the most for what they want, bypassing Ralsei's usual methods of denial & rationalization to strike at their core because she won't have any of their bullshit. This isn't always a happy process; in fact, it can be quite painful for both of them when this process inevitably exposes them to one another more than they want. Things like trying to find out what items Ralsei would like for their room, or getting them to be more sarcastic, or even just forcing them to come to terms with their own fears by her own brute force and blind faith in Chapter 4, all of these are crucial parts of Susie being the primary, most consistent motivator in bringing the real Ralsei out from their constructed shell of "truths" and "order."

Kris, meanwhile, typically doesn't really prompt Ralsei in the same way unless we give them the chance, but it's worth discussing anyway. Through them we can see options that Kris absolutely prefers to say, particularly in optional moments like the one in Chapter 3 where we can make Ralsei talk about their feelings towards their appearance. Kris lets us take command in that moment, but if we try to pivot things back to telling Ralsei that he is unoriginal, they intervene with laughter to play off their reversal as a joke and preserve Ralsei's pride. Kris begins to want to bring things out of Ralsei after the Acid Tunnel scene, where Ralsei first expresses to them that he might not be as simple as he seems, but it takes time, trust, and effort. They're murkier on the subject, but through them and sometimes with their help we can prod at Ralsei's feelings.

Flowery, however, is by far the most shining example. In Chapter 5, he seems to kinda go through three distinct phases: firstly, the bully who mainly acts spiteful and cruel in vague attempts to "make Ralsei more assertive" while trying to make the heroes leave; second, the mentor who still can be overbearing and challenging but shows more desire to actually help Ralsei meaningfully through smaller prods; and third, the rival, who exposes Ralsei's flaws and limitations right to their face while issuing much greater counterclaims. There's a real narrative growth between the both of them where they become equals and learn from each other, but why did Flowery's methodology simply not work?

There's a few reasons. A big one is stuff like the menu options where we can deliberately choose to bully Ralsei at Flowery's prompting, but Flowery's whole approach is way too overpowering. He does the following: stuffs Ralsei into a closet, slams their old hat down on their head despite how much they like their real face, constantly instills in them the "necessity" to hide themself from Asgore, outright tramples him, and tries to convince the heroes to leave. None of these options register to Ralsei as things worth considering, things that actually make him question who he is; instead, Ralsei simply gets angry at Flowery, and can only flail in return while secretly desiring to set the guy on fire. This is a complete no-go, but…

When we reach Flower Castle, things are different. While we're away and Ralsei is out of Asgore's eyeshot, Flowery starts to take a different approach. He forces Ralsei into a butler outfit, something that has happened to Ralsei before, but lets Ralsei roam around otherwise, letting them pacify all the Floradinns guarding the jail he's gonna put Kris and Susie in. Ralsei is much more responsive to this! Once we meet back up with Ralsei and talk to them, they state with no small amount of annoyance that the butler outfit is only nice in certain contexts. Then, if you have Kris hang out with Ralsei after completing the left side of Flower Castle, Flowery once again challenges him with the simple fact that Kris, despite Ralsei's wishes, has been subverting his wishes and potentially dooming the world for some purpose he doesn't understand. I see many people take Ralsei's response of ultimately praising Kris and trusting their motives as character regression, but while Ralsei is definitely affording Kris too much trust, this is a moment of growth. Ralsei's moral rationalizations have been challenged, and now Ralsei makes the choice to say that their moralizing is perhaps too reductive and that there's likely more to the picture. Take note that Ralsei's rationalization was challenged instead of something broader; Ralsei is least aware of their rationalizations, and exposing them to what they've implicitly done sparks a lot of growth.

Now, it's time for the big scene. The one you've been waiting for if you're a transfem Ralsei believer, with potentially huge implications.

Part 3.2: Why Question It?

So, let's ask the big, honest, narrative question. Why does the story use Flowery here to make such a big hint at Ralsei maybe being trans? Until this point the hints were scattershot at best, and usually pretty minor things; Lost Girl playing in the room scene, Ralsei disliking the Prophecy which labels them with a term that appears gendered, the game's insistence on their "boyhood" despite often linking it in the same breath to Ralsei's hatted appearance which hid something they liked about themself. But here the hint is pretty direct, and in my opinion gained so much importance because Ralsei responds to it.

Why is that the case, however? Until this point there have been no moments, save perhaps if you took the other route through the castle first, where Flowery completely levels with Ralsei. The rivalry, the sharp challenges, the bullying, it's not present here. If anything, as the drink vouchers with the suspiciously chosen colors signify, this is a moment of genuine connection between the two of them wherein he recognizes something Ralsei wants and encourages them to have it. This scene is inherently the big paradigm shift of their dynamic, and it's important to recognize that Flowery's challenges on the left path and at the top of the castle aren't the same as what has happened here. Flowery is still acting in Ralsei's interests alongside his own in their usual rivalry, but those moments incite Ralsei to anger, frustration, and genuine discomfort, which is precisely the opening that makes the moment of genuine connection so strong. Flowery is a Darkner with no plan for the future constructed around an identity that will exist for at most twenty-four hours, yet he chooses a radicalist hope very similar to Ralsei's. Whilst Ralsei has a superior position in logic, planning, existence, and quite possibly power, and is generally quite correct in assessing Flowery's faults of egotism and their flippancy, their similarities are so deep, and Flowery's self-awareness so strong, that Ralsei cannot back down without sinning against their own judgments.

We know that Ralsei struggles to assert their identity when figures of authority are present. Ironically, what Ralsei (mostly) rightly perceives as Flowery's faults gives them a sense of superiority over him. He isn't a person who Ralsei looks to for identity, but someone Ralsei actively looks down upon in order to justify themself. So when Flowery pokes at something Ralsei once was able to play off as a desire they would fulfill with the permission of authority, it can't be dismissed, particularly since it strikes at that well-concealed nerve of Ralsei's concerning their assumptions about what their knowledge actually means. To be clear, we have no indication that Flowery understands the Prophecy nor the "rules of the world" like Ralsei does; his knowledge is mostly general, likely stemming from Asgore's own knowledge of what's provided in Hometown's religion. However, from the information he had, he made logical steps and value judgments which led him towards his absurdist mentality, and that is the crux of the matter. Ralsei sees themself too clearly in Flowery (a common trend amongst those who help them develop their identity, given how important Susie is to filling that role in previous chapters) to pretend that Flowery is alien to them, nor can Ralsei try to defer to authority when they believe Flowery deserves no such respect. All that stares them in the face is that they have made a critical assumption which may not be the full picture, and there is only one conclusion.

Perhaps their gender and identity as a whole are, in fact, foundationally misguided assumptions about meanings that don't exist in their knowledge.

Every moment about Ralsei's identity, already strongly hinted to be the products of Ralsei coming to terms with their own programming, gains this new layer. "Princess" made them blush and act huffy in a way that their own expression did not because this time there was no barrier between themself and the meaning of the word. To me, this is the crucial opening of the floodgates that makes Transfem Ralsei truly click as a reading and very possible outcome. If gender is on the table as explicitly part of their identity, by the terms of their prior identity struggle, it makes a lot of sense that Ralsei's male identity is, too, a serious potential point of change. All those little hints from before look much, much stronger now.

Personally, I'm not a 100% Galsei truther just yet. I'm currently of the mind that Ralsei might, in fact, be genderfluid, or perhaps bigender. Nonbinary Ralsei in whatever form also makes sense. Ralsei could even remain as they are. However, I do strongly suspect Ralsei will come out as transfeminine in some regard, seeing as it has ample evidence and would greatly supplement their character development. If I don't claim transfem Ralsei to be a 100% foregone conclusion, you may be asking, "Why is it here in an essay which seeks to deem Ralsei as a "true prince?"

To which I respond, "Well, who says the title of "Prince" must imply that the bearer is male?"

Part 4: Princehood

I'm doing to begin this section by defining a "prince" as a general title for a ruler over some dominion they have claimed, and who can therefore exert some power over said domain. Gender is not a necessary factor when discussion the concept of a ruler in abstract, though it is often assumed. Yes, I know this is going to get extremely technical, but please bear with me. To analyze a character so caught up in unconscious reason, we have to get a little in the weeds with our own. We know Ralsei is a prince; so Ralsei calls himself, and the Prophecy too. How does Ralsei, therefore, fit the bill of a prince, with a domain and power over it?

Part 4.1: The Prince's Dominion

Well, from what we actually know, Ralsei's dominion is never really stated. The Prophecy calls Ralsei "THE PRINCE, ALONE IN DEEPEST DARK," which Ralsei distills into "A PRINCE FROM THE DARK." Ralsei parrots princehood from a reliable source, but it doesn't seem like there's any prescribed meaning to the title; after all, all we know is that Ralsei originates from a very dark, isolated place who now emerges into the light of the story. Ralsei was also a "prince" well before they had any subjects to rule over, and even once they do they are honestly quite terrible at managing those subjects. Everyone in Castle Town just does what they want while Ralsei watches from afar, only really getting involved when Kris and Susie are around (to whom he still acts subservient, what a wonderful thing for a prince to have) and otherwise having their wishes largely ignored by the town's denizens. If Ralsei's true dominion is the town's subjects, they are one godawful prince.

But perhaps Ralsei's dominion is something else. Something Ralsei has always had to rule over. If Ralsei was alone all this time, there is an answer that fits the qualification of dominion: capital-D Darkness itself.

Ralsei has always been exempt from a lot of the strange rules impressed upon other Darkners. They can exist within any Fountain's world; their Fountain permits all Darkners to exist save for very specific circumstances (the memory of Gerson to give the Old Man his identity, the absence of light to nourish the Flowers); they can identify the exact parameters of other Darkners' existences when other Darkners have much less knowledge; he knows much more about why there are game mechanics in the Dark World than other Darkners; the rules of objects/concepts manifesting into Darkners do not cleanly apply to Ralsei without some serious leaps in logic or very clever reinterpretations of certain rules. Ralsei is still a Darkner by their own admission, but there's something else, which Flowery gently prods them over: "an impossibility." We don't know in what way Ralsei is an "impossibility," but we can infer that, just as Flowery insists on being human, Ralsei is acting as though they are something outside their fundamental nature, something Ralsei obviously wouldn't accept being true with their mindset as it is. By Ralsei's mentality, it should not be possible.

And yet it is. We've established that Ralsei has been fed exact truths about the parameters and control case of the Experiment, and save for Weird Route content, these rules are beyond breaking. Ralsei's current identity being an "impossibility" is only impossible because Ralsei believes it to be such, not that it is truly so. In yet another way, extrapolation, inference, and choice (the essence of Darkness by the paradigm established earlier) are shown to be intrinsic to Ralsei's being, something they do command over themself even if it appears impossible. Just the same for their conclusion that the Last Prophecy must be subverted, or their choice to do so by kindness, or even their choice to obscure the truth. Each and every instance is Ralsei exerting their power over their dominion.

Part 4.2: The False Ralsei

Thus is Ralsei's flat identity as he presents early on, a facade hiding much deeper truths about the character, an example of how they can use their power to distort themself. Assumptions about the true "way of things" are extremely dangerous without rigorous backing, and sometimes even with; part of Ralsei's tragedy is that he has backings that are immaculately rigorous, painfully so, yet his assumptions are still shown time and time again to be misguided. The Dark Worlds being "real" though he and Flowery both refer to them as "fantasy," likely because their shift in perspective on reality (see Ralsei's Chapter 3 speech and how Dark Worlds are "reality viewed through the lends of shadow), is a perfect example because Ralsei says what appears to be a scientific truth before claiming that he and Tenna are fundamentally not real.

Ralsei's attachment to and hyperfixation on perceived "truths" and escapism in the Light World has some other interest effects that contribute to his warped sense of self. Chapter 5's Festival sequence raises an interesting point which I, to my own shock, never see applied to Ralsei: the voting ballot. Rudy and Noelle both point out, indirectly so, how the titles of Festival King and Queen are specially gendered. When encouraging Noelle, Rudy says that perhaps this year there will be two Queens, despite Susie being perfectly willing to write herself as King. When you vote for Kris and Noelle on the ballot and show it to Noelle, she remarks that she could never figure out how the two of them should categorize each other on the ballot, likely because Kris is nonbinary and the strict dichotomy leaves them out. In spite of Toby's writing seeming to take queer rep for granted, Hometown does have ideas of cisheteronormativity that are very pervasive and implicit. It's not the first time we've seen pervasive ideas and acceptance be misaligned with the behavior of the residents; look no further than Toriel talking about sin and impressing it upon a young Asriel despite Hometown's religion admitting of neither sin nor confession.

What does Hometown's complicated relationship with queer identity have to do with Ralsei, though? He's neither a Lightner nor a Hometown resident, at most seeming connected to ones that make up the Dreemurr family. Recall, however, that the idea of a Prince is not necessarily tied to gender as it pertains to rulership. Does that idea hold in Hometown?

Absolutely not.

Catty's silly monologue in the church in Chapter 4, highly skippable as it is, is as far as I know the only moment where Ralsei is referenced in abstract by someone who has never met them. When talking about the prophesied Heroes, despite the Girl being the most explicitly gendered, Catty talks about the one that's supposed to be Ralsei. She says that "there's one with horns" and that she imagines him as being very cute. The game has always been insistent on reminding us of Ralsei's gender, but putting it in the context of normal Lightners assuming the gender of The Prince and in conjunction with Ralsei's obsession with things they believe more real than themself, it reads that perhaps Ralsei made the same inference. The Prophecy called for a Prince, and Ralsei, making a similar conclusion to Catty, assumed that's all they could be. Ralsei's more recent interest in expressing as a princess sometimes fits even more nicely into their arc about connecting with their own personhood, as it is yet another way Ralsei is managing to look beyond their assumptions, even if they still believe they need to justify themself to another figure of authority.

Ralsei believes they must hide themself to justify their existence; their conclusions have deluded themself to such a degree that they are fundamentally opposed to letting themself simply be, and that who they truly are must be hidden from the world and themself. Yet, as everyone around them says, even Asgore, hopefully they can stop feeling like they must hide their true self.

Part 4.3: The True Ralsei

This deep into the essay, I think the picture we've painted of who Ralsei is has become very clear, but with all the knowledge it is worth condensing into something more readable. Ralsei, despite being a Darkner, is someone who is uniquely privy to and unequivocally obsessed with very fundamental truths about the worlds his knowledge dictates. They can explain plot events and Darkner mechanics, have special knowledge of our presence as a second entity within Kris's body, and behave accordingly, yet have no idea what these things truly mean. Somehow they possess intimate knowledge of Kris and Susie's home lives, their situations in life, and yet they are horrifically incapable of predicting how these people will actually act. They know with complete certainty that their knowledge is absolute and fundamentally fear the consequences of not knowing these things, yet they still believe in the face of it all that they have a workable plan to break what their knowledge dictates must happen that will result in a safe, happy ending instead. They show power over the Light World in moments such as closing the Great Door in Chapter 1, yet seem unwilling to recognize their own powers and significance within the world to which they are unbreakably bound. They believe that their facets of personality are things to be added onto their flat person, yet only exist as they are by decisions made from these facets. Even their gender appears set in stone by conclusions made about their role in the Prophecy they follow, fear, and detest, yet they seem unbothered by the idea that princesshood can coexist with princehood under the umbrella of mere difference in presentation.

At their heart, despite having certainty and cold logic at their core, Ralsei is a fundamentally uncertain person. This uncertainty, this irrational behavior in the face of absolute rationale, is Ralsei's truest and greatest strength.

Part 4.4: The True Prince's Struggle

Most importantly of all, oftentimes when Ralsei taps into this irrationality and certainty does the story prove them right. Not always; outright breaking the Prophecy by kindness was a naive and half-formed attempt to defy something Ralsei deemed to be an immutable truth, emphasized by the metaphor of the reappearing panels in the Sanctuaries, and only hurt them worse than ever before. Yet Ralsei's approach when it came to what they consciously decided upon, their exertion of their power over themself, has led to positive results. Tenna is the perfect example of this: "THE LORD OF SCREENS, CLEAVED RED BY BLADE" is a line that very, very much seems to indicate death, yet following Ralsei's advice and being kind recontextualizes the phrase to simply mean that Tenna was cut. Any sense of fatality has been removed from it, the Prophecy essentially defanged of its power in place of Ralsei's own.

It cannot be understated how promising a feat this is. Ralsei's original decisions, the ones he still struggles to recognize as his own, being proven right invites more awareness as to what these are. Ralsei is at his best when he trusts his instincts about personhood, and at his worst when he assumes overly rigid views of what "should" be. Kris and Susie both suffer from the same issue during Chapter 5 when they adhere to outdated ideas of the order of things; Kris's adherence to their guilt and their promise only worsens their ability to connect with others, and Susie's neglect of her current connections and ignorance of their encroaching rot in pursuit of new ones is heavily foreshadowed to end badly for her. Ralsei is all too familiar with this danger, so endangered by it that it appeared to consume his entire identity. But when Ralsei looks away from truth to look at humanity as the Flowers force him to, that is the moment Ralsei can grow and change; to put it another way, when Ralsei rejects rigidity and embraces fluidity, he may pursue actualization. This is the work of a true Prince whose domain is Darkness, and what I fully believe will be essential to capping off Ralsei's growth. Forgoing the appearance of truth to challenge assumptions and bend meanings to their will is, in my mind, the ultimate power they could embrace; perhaps they may even find a way to subvert the Last Prophecy, if they and their friends can all actualize well enough to discover and empower their true selves.

I firmly believe that Ralsei's true self aligns with the idea of Ralsei as a true Prince per the meaning given to it in this essay. The Prophecy cannot be changed, nor does it appear to be something one can completely circumvent. Being able to escape prophesied roles would be too convenient and cheap a solution for Deltarune's narrative. As far as we can tell, Kris, Susie, and Ralsei are all its Heroes, and there is no escape. All the more for Ralsei, its born prophet. However, if Ralsei learns to accept their aspect, to respect their own existence as a Darkner and discover meaning in it, to gain understanding and power from it, and can thenceforth decide for themself who they want to be, they can reclaim the cold, unfeeling words of fate as their own. The Prince of the Prophecy can be many things, far more than one assumes at a cursory glance at strict definitions; it's up to Ralsei to decide what the word means as it applies to them, and to use its power to decide their own fate.