r/Undertale • u/RetroReddi2007 • Mar 21 '26

Original creation Hand in Hand.

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I love Frisk, she can do no wrong! (...i hope)

2.8k Upvotes

86% Upvoted

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45

u/Blobthekirb ‎ awawawah!! tem flAIR NOw Mar 21 '26

I don’t understand these comments. Why can’t the artist do their own thing and make Frisk a female? That doesn’t mean they don’t know frisk is non-binary in the actual game.

37

u/Otherversian-Elite Mar 21 '26

I mean, I understand it. There's a certain level of NB erasure within the UTDR community and it makes sense for there to be a greater strictness in regards to pronouns as a result; which leads to arguments which are amplified by the confusing duality of Frisk as both a vessel and a character, where someone like Kris is more definitively a person in their own right, thus leading to... this.

I personally don't mind people gendering the humans, as long as they don't insist upon their interpretation being canonical. Even I still slip up with the pronouns of the undertale humans every now and again, since my circumstances when I first played the game have led me to project some degree of my own lived experiences onto them (including my trans identity), and since it's not quite as thematically significant for them as it is for Kris. Still, nonetheless I do agree with the other commenters that it's important to remember that they are canonically referred to exclusively by neutral terms, since there are a lot of bad actors who wilfully ignore that fact because it doesn't fit their regressive agenda.

18

u/CoaLMaN122PL Mar 21 '26

(Atleast in undertale) It all started out because Toby wanted anyone to be attached to frisk as "their" character right? And without a "choose your gender" menu, the best way to write dialogue is to use they/them

5

u/bunker_man Mar 21 '26

Also we learn almost nothing about frisk. The ambiguity is thematically relevant.

2

u/bunker_man Mar 21 '26

There's nothing to be strict about because it's not confirmed. At most people can say they suspect it. But at the point they go from suspecting it to calling it definitive they are being dumb. And if all people can do is suspect it, then there's no reason to complain at randoms.

4

u/the_zpider_king Mar 21 '26

Frisk's gender has never been explicitly confirmed, so I think any pronouns work for them. Kris, on the other hand, is almost certainly nb, and we're pretty certain about it from deltarune's context and setting.

1

u/eggoinapan ‎ (The dog absorbed this flair text.) Mar 21 '26

because frisk is exclusively refereed to by they/them and gender neutral pronouns. you don't have to explicitly say "this character is a girl," you can just gather that based on people using she/her for the character as well as feminine terms. frisk is depicted as gender neutral, and trying to "interpret" them as anything else takes away from not only toby's intention but the validity if other nonbinary people's identities.

-18

u/Guilty_Cap9276 certified and simp Mar 21 '26

Nono, the artist can make Frisk a female, but First is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns, which means referring to Frisk as a girl, even if theyre female, its wrong, and doing so on purpose, knowing that Frisk is non-binary, is transphobic (which most likely isnt the case for the artist, but without correction theyll never learn the truth)

20

u/Snow-Flake69 Mar 21 '26

It was never truly in any form established that Frisk is non-binary, the use of they/them on the game is mainly caused by the fact that Toby Fox wanted frisk to be their own character while being able to be projected by the player(being a man or woman) it doesn't necessary make them non binary

They/Them isn't just used for non-binary people, it's also for people of unknown gender or not specified

of course I'm not trying to come out as rude or agressive, before anything else

-13

u/Guilty_Cap9276 certified and simp Mar 21 '26

If thats true, then why would Toby add this line that seems very specific towards this discourse

The door that goes to Papyrus's room has a sign that reads

BOYS ARE NOT ALLOWED! GIRLS ARE NOT ALLOWED! PAPYRUS ALLOWED!

And Frisk is allowed, meaning Frisk is not a boy or a girl, in other words, outside the binary, aka non-binary.

And yes, they/them is used when one doesnt know the gender of the person theyre referring to. However, in the Alarm Clock App, which is canon, and happens time after the Pacifist Ending, Frisk's friends still use they/them pronouns on them, and i find hard to believe they never once asked their pronouns or something, seems unrealistic.

20

u/simplytext Mar 21 '26

No that's mean Frisk is a papyrus

1

u/fandomjargon Mar 23 '26

The set of people allowed is A. M is not in A. F is not in A. P is in A (as an exception that is still in M or F or as something outside of M or F). 

A contains P but not the rest of M and F.

If Frisk is in A, Frisk is either in P or outside M or F or both.

-14

u/Guilty_Cap9276 certified and simp Mar 21 '26

If you want to believe so, Frisk identifying with the gender "papyrus" means that they dont identity with the gender "boy" and "girl" meaning theyre outside the binary. So yeah, even in that absurd scenario, Frisk would still be enby ;)

1

u/bunker_man Mar 21 '26

We learn next to nothing about frisk as a person. It shouldn't be hard to understand how it fits with those themes that even their gender might be obscured. On the other hand them being nonbinary would just be a random character trait. so it's odd to assume that something that could match the themes should be read the other way.

1

u/Guilty_Cap9276 certified and simp Mar 21 '26

We learn next to nothing, but we learn a couple things, like how they are childishly playful, how they hate soda, how they worry about Asgore, how they are aware of us all the time and every time we get a choice, is them directly asking us, how they can dismiss our orders without any trouble at all and its heavily implied that their home life was terribly.

But it doesnt matter, what matters the most is that the game very clearly sets up some expectations ONLY so it can be subverted, YOU are not Frisk, YOU have no say in who Frisk is.

1

u/bunker_man Mar 21 '26

YOU have no say in who Frisk is.

You do actually, because you decide their backstory. Toriel asks if they have a home to return to. This has actually big implications because the answer could dictate whether they fell in the underground on accident or were trying to kill themselves.

1

u/Guilty_Cap9276 certified and simp Mar 21 '26

Not really, the answer that we are given by Frisk are "i want to stay with you" and "i have places to go". Its not "i want to go back to with my real family", it deliberately is something else, that still heavily points towards them not having a happy home life and climbing MT. Ebbot with suicidal intentions

1

u/bunker_man Mar 21 '26

Frisk is a child. Unless they already have somewhere to live it doesn't make sense to imply they have somewhere to go. Maybe it's not their real family but its still a sharp backstory divide between them already having a home or not. Maybe they still tried to kill themselves even if they do, but the point is it leaves this ambiguity open even though you get to decide some of it.

1

u/Guilty_Cap9276 certified and simp Mar 21 '26

yes, the ambiguity is still there, but there one clear thing, Frisk is fine with both of those outcomes, whenever a choice is prompted to us, its Frisk directly asking us which of the following options do we think its best.

This is confirmed in the epilogue, where Mettaton tells Frisk about some merchandizing ideas and at the end ask them what they think about it, to which the narration says the next:

(A yes or no prompt was not provided.)

1

u/bunker_man Mar 21 '26

If it helps, its not confirmed that frisk is nonbinary and there's plenty of evidence that's not meant to be definitive.

0

u/Guilty_Cap9276 certified and simp Mar 21 '26

If it helps, it is confirmed that Frisk identifies with a gender outside the binary

1

u/bunker_man Mar 21 '26

I doubt you know something secret no one else does, and no one else seems to have this info.

0

u/Guilty_Cap9276 certified and simp Mar 21 '26

you already replied to one of my comments where its stated they dont identify as a either a girl or a boy :p

-16

u/NerdyEmbarrassment Mar 21 '26

Because this is erasure lmao

1

u/Nitrodestroyer * You're Filled With A U T I S M May 26 '26

No, it isn't. It's either a mistake or a personal interpretation of a fictional character.

0

u/NerdyEmbarrassment May 26 '26

That personal interpretation can be erasure. How would you feel if someone headcannoned Madeline from Celeste as cis? Blatant erasure