From the very beginning of DELTARUNE, it’s made very, very, very clear that Kris is not a self-insert of any kind. We are literally told to make a self-insert character, only to have it thrown into the trash, and ‘replaced’ by… Kris. Kris, who has their own name, personality, likes and dislikes… Kris. Who is their own person. If you don’t believe at least that much, I don’t even know what to do with you.
We don’t get to choose Kris’ physical appearance, or what they wear.
We don’t get to choose Kris’ personality.
We don’t get to choose Kris’ likes or dislikes.
We don’t get to choose what Kris is good at or bad at.
We don’t get to choose Kris’ favorite food or blood type or anything of the sort.
We don’t get to choose who Kris is.
The only thing about Kris that is under our control is their actions. We do not get to choose anything about who they are as a person.
So why the hell would their gender be an exception to that? Why would we not be able to choose anything about who Kris is except their gender specifically???? It makes no sense whatsoever. Why would this ONE single thing be up to player interpretation? It almost defeats the entire point of Kris being their own person who we happen to be manipulating.
So, then, what is Kris’ gender?
(From Susie.)
(From Ralsei, who is some version of Kris’ brother, who would know their pronouns better than anyone.)
Kris using “they/them” pronouns doesn’t magically make their gender up to interpretation. You wouldn’t still say it was up to interpretation if they were referred to as a “he” or a “she”. You wouldn’t tell an actual non-binary person that their gender is up to your interpretation because they use they/them pronouns, or at least I sure fucking hope you wouldn’t. They’re non-binary.
And that’s really important to a lot of people! Do you know how rare it is for non-binary people to feel accurately and respectfully represented by a character, especially a protagonist in a video game?? Really fucking rare is how rare!!
This isn’t an attack upon your ability to have headcanons. I’m saying that this isn’t something left up to your interpretation. Kris is non-binary as much as Susie is a girl and Ralsei is a boy.
“But it’s never explicitly stated that Kris is non-binary!!” It’s also never explicitly stated that Seam is a man – in fact, I’m pretty sure he’s never even referred to with any pronouns, ever – but everyone seems to agree that he’s a dude. I certainly haven’t seen anyone argue that he’s a woman, or non-binary. Hmmm.
Something doesn’t have to be explicitly stated and spelled out for you for it to be canon. Alphys doesn’t ever say “I’m bisexual” in Undertale, but she does have a crush on both Undyne (a woman) and Asgore (a man), so she is, guess what, canonically bisexual. And that, too, is really important to a lot of bisexual people who don’t often get represented in media, and even less often get happy endings like Alphys does.
Saying “nah kris is a boy because I Said So” is denying a slight bit of happiness to those with such little representation already. Without proper representation within media it can leave non-binary people feeling lonesome in their experiences due to it being seen as somewhat “uncommon” etc, which contributes to this dismissive behavior in the first place. In other words, having canonically non-binary characters is important. It helps combat the stigma that exists against trans and non-binary people. By removing what little representation non-binary people have, you’re contributing to that stigma. You’re saying that non-binary stories aren’t worth telling.
And that’s not true.
Okay, gonna give my 2 cents here.
Like, this is fine and all and I get it. But at the same time, Kris is fictional? Genderbending is a thing? Headcanon is a thing? Like how there’s people that HC Papyrus as NB when he’s referred to as “he” by everyone? And how some people HC that Sans is trans or gay despite having NO evidence to support it?
I’m autistic, and I don’t NEED representation in media, despite there still being a lot of stigma about autism. I just want more medical info out there about it. I don’t need a fictional character to have autism to feel valid. Just like I don’t need bisexual characters in the media to feel valid. If some motherfucker comes up to me and says my bisexuality is fake, then that’s THEIR problem, not mine. I know I’m real and not the stigmas they say, and that should be enough.
I kinda feel like people rely too heavily on fictional characters for validation these days, and it needs to stop? You’re not invalid or a freak, or whatever because there’s no fictional character that isn’t exactly like you down to a T. And if you’re that sucked into the fictional world that you need everything to be EXACTLY AS YOU SAY for you to be happy, then you need to take a step back and look at yourself and life and how other people wanna express these fictional characters/worlds.
I feel like posts like these are meant to shut down people’s creative freedom. What if someone wants Kris to be a boy for a ship? What if they want Kris to be a girl for a ship? At the end of the day, they’re a fictional character, which means no matter what may be canon, people are allowed to express this character however they want. I just don’t want anymore gate-keeping in this fandom, cause there’s already WAY too much of it. And that’s what this post sounds like to me, so I was just expressing my concern.
Marshmellowmilktea 